Growing Plants On The Balcony

2024 Author: Gavin MacAdam | [email protected]. Last modified: 2023-12-16 13:38

If you don't have your own garden, it doesn't matter! You can grow any greenery on the balcony, in a city apartment. The main thing is to comply with the necessary requirements for planting and care, as well as to love this business

Most modern apartments are equipped with loggias and balconies. Such designs can be easily turned into decorative flowering green corners. If you choose the right plants that will feel comfortable in such conditions, it will be very pleasant to relax in such a place after a hard day's work.

However, the correct selection of plants for growing on the balcony takes an important place and requires maximum attention. Of course, you have to work hard to equip everything you need. But the end result will be worth the time and effort spent. Every culture should feel comfortable on the balcony during flowering and development. Therefore, attention must be paid to any factor - temperature, watering, fertilizers and others.

How to choose plants for the balcony?

There are many aspects that influence the choice of plants for growing on the balcony. The direction of the side where the balcony itself is located plays a special role. It is also worth paying attention to its type - whether it is closed or open, whether there is glazing, insulation. On which floor the balcony is located is also an important circumstance. Its dimensions can be spacious and large, or, on the contrary, small. Further, the gardener should build on his taste preferences for plants.

You can pick up variegated or monochromatic plant specimens that delight with their flowering and gracefulness. Often, balconies are equipped with vertical or horizontal landscaping. Various plant and flower cultures take part here as well. Ampel and erect plant forms, for example, will give a balcony garden some charm. Balconies and loggias are often landscaped with the help of ordinary indoor plants, among which there may even be spicy herbs, undersized shrubs with vegetable fruits or greens.

Garden crops in such a situation are annual flowers, although perennial crops can be a lovely decoration of the "vegetable garden" on the balcony. Annual flowers are good because from the moment the seeds germinate to the onset of the flowering phase, a small cycle of one season passes. With perennial flowers, things are different. They delight the owner with their charming flowering every year. At the same time, if you provide them with a comfortable winter, most often by insulating the balcony or moving to the basement, then even annual plants can delight with their beauty from two to three years. However, perennial plants are more resistant to frost and sharp drops in temperature. But on an open and glazed balcony without insulation in the winter season, they are likely to die.

Plants on the south balconies

Many growers mistakenly assume that the south side of the balcony is suitable for growing absolutely all plants. But this is not at all the case. At the same time, too intense lighting and direct scorching rays of the sun have different characteristics. Many light-loving cultures cannot stand too hot weather, and at noon are susceptible to burns from the sultry summer sun.

Therefore, the choice of plants in such an arrangement of the balcony must be approached thoroughly. Most attention is required if the construction of the balcony is also open. Dry and hot air dries up the soil very quickly. Due to this, the plants placed here need to be watered and sprayed with water from a spray bottle very often. Usually this manipulation is carried out twice a day - in the early morning and in the evening. The insulated and glazed types of balconies on the south side should be open for the whole day in the heat and heat. But here it is important to ensure that drafts do not penetrate them.

Pelargonium (geranium), for example, is one of the most popular plants grown on the southern balconies and the same sides of the windowsill. It belongs to a variety of perennial crops in our area, although it is generally grown as an annual. Before wintering, geranium throws off its leaves and goes into a state of dormancy. You can save the plant until next year by moving it to the cool part of the apartment for the winter. An insulated balcony will be the best option for her.