Learn More About Balcony Vegetable Gardening
Today, more and more people are moving into condominiums or apartments. The one thing that people seem to miss, however, is no land for gardening. Yet, growing a vegetable garden on a balcony is not all that difficult, and you can truly have a fruitful balcony vegetable garden.
Plants for Balcony Vegetable Gardening
Almost any vegetable plant you can think of to grow in a backyard garden will also thrive in your balcony vegetable garden under the right conditions, including:
These can all grow in containers, as can many herbs, and actually do quite well. Container gardening is becoming quite popular in balcony gardens.
You can choose any type of container for growing a vegetable garden on a balcony. Choose clay pots, plastic ones, or just containers that decorate your balcony garden the way you'd like to decorate it. Make sure the container you choose offers good drainage. The drain holes are best if placed on the sides of the container. Place them about one quarter to one half inch (6 mm. to 1 cm.) from the bottom of the container.
Tips for Growing a Vegetable Garden on a Balcony
When you are planting in containers on your balcony gardens, you need to make sure to use synthetic soils. These are best suited for container plants. Synthetic soils are made of wood chips, peat moss, sawdust, vermiculite, perlite, or any other type of synthetic planting media. You can fill the bottom of the container with coarse gravel before putting the soil in. This will improve drainage for your plants.
Make sure once your plants are out in your balcony gardens that you do not forget to water them. This happens more often than not. Watering one time a day is necessary and more would be too much. If, per chance, your balcony has direct sunlight and no roof, you will not have to water on the days it rains.
Any vegetable that is easy to transplant is great for container growing. However, you can also germinate seed indoors as you would if you were going to plant them in the backyard, and then transplant them to your containers on your balcony vegetable garden when they are ready.
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Balcony vegetable gardening will yield a great amount of vegetables so long as your plants get plenty of moisture and sunlight. Be sure to harvest your vegetables when they are at their peak of ripeness. This will give you the best tasting vegetables from your balcony vegetable garden.
Check Out Our Complete Guide to Vegetable Gardening
Growing a vegetable garden on a balcony is not difficult. Simply do the same thing you would do in your own backyard, except make sure to follow the soil condition and container rules listed above. If you do this, your balcony gardens will flourish.
Kathee Mierzejewski was with Gardening Know How in the very beginning, writing many of the site's foundational articles.
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