Limited gardening space? Look up! Vertical gardening offers a fantastic solution for balconies, utilising walls, supports and smart planters to transform even tiny areas into lush green havens.
Tips on balcony gardening
- Get to know your balcony's sunlight. Watch how the sun travels during the day to locate sunny and shady zones. Keep in mind that at least six hours of direct sunlight is crucial for most fruit and vegetable growth.
- Be aware that balconies can be quite exposed to wind, leading to rapid moisture loss in plants. Installing a screen of cane matting will buffer the wind and make growing easier.
- To ensure the safety and stability of your balcony, be cautious about the weight of your plant pots. Wet soil and compost can be deceptively heavy.
- Protect your neighbours and your balcony by using drip trays under all your pots to catch excess water.
5 vertical gardening ideas for balconies
- Balcony rail planters offer a brilliant space-saving solution, designed to sit securely over or hang from your railing. Ideal for compact plants like herbs and strawberries, or cascading summer blooms such as petunias and begonias.
- Stackable planters offer another ingenious way to maximise small spaces. These modular units interlock to create vertical gardens of any height, with planting pockets at each tier ideal for colorful flowers or fragrant herbs like parsley, basil, and mint.
- Bring vertical beauty to your balcony by growing climbers in pots, training them up obelisks or trellises attached to your wall. Consider the miniature climbing rose ‘Warm Welcome’ for abundant bright orange blooms all summer. For a mix of beauty and edibles, try the climbing French bean ‘Blauhilde’ with its stunning violet flowers followed by delicious purple beans that transform to green when cooked.
- Tiered plant stands are an excellent space-saving solution for balcony gardens, allowing you to cultivate significantly more plants in the same footprint. On a balcony, utilise the varying light levels by placing sun-loving plants on the higher tiers and shade-tolerant varieties on the lower shelves, which often receive less direct sunlight.
- Bring height and structure to your balcony garden with a potted ornamental tree. The dwarf Japanese maple ‘Wilson’s Pink Dwarf’, with its beautiful variegated leaves, thrives in the partial shade often found on balconies. You can also grow compact fruit trees in containers, such as Ballerina apples ‘Samba’ and ‘Flamenco’. Their slim, upright shape saves space, and they produce fruit along the main stem after displaying attractive spring flowers.
Ready to make your garden look its best this year? We've got everything you need, whatever its size. Stop by today and get gardening!
