What can you grow on the balcony in the winter, in the summer?

In the interior design of a city apartment, plants are not the last place. When it comes to arranging a balcony, with the onset of warm sunny days, many townspeople just get on the idea of building an entire garden. The question is especially relevant in the event that the owners of the apartment do not have their own land plot. Let's find out what can be grown on the balcony for different seasons.

Looking for consensus

In families, there is usually a dilemma. If women are ready to give almost all the balcony space at the mercy of decorative flowering plants, then men are thinking more about "daily bread" and are fighting for planting on the balcony of greenery and vegetables. How to be in such a delicate situation? The only way out is to look for a compromise and competently divide the tiny space.

To help in this situation will come the head and skillful men's hands, which will build up hinged structures for ampel colors, thereby unloading space for greenery and vegetables inside the balcony itself. With the skillful use of multi-storey stands and hinged boxes, you will be surprised to find that you can grow flowers and vegetables at the same time on the balcony. By the way, for the construction of boxes for planting material, the old furniture dismantled will be of use, and the leaky buckets and pots will have a second life as plant trays.

Flower balcony garden

Now let's talk about specific cultures. And let's start, of course, with flowers. After all, they every spring make an inexhaustible human imagination to seek new and new combinations, make up new compositions. Plants such as petunias have established themselves as decoration of the outer space of the balcony, they delight the eye with abundant flowering from May to autumn. However, the seeds should be sown in February, moreover, petunia rises quite heavily, and also reluctantly undergoes transplants. Well accustomed to the balcony boxes of seedlings of summer dahlias, verbena, lobelia, godets, alissum.

If we want the bright blossoming spots to please us during the warm period, it is advisable to sow some unpretentious crops with seeds, and immediately to a permanent place. This will be the so-called second wave of sowing. Let it be for June, and as a seed material we will consider nasturtium, ipomeu, phacelia.

What can I grow on the balcony: two-year-old flowers

Very good options for the balcony garden are daisies and viola (in the people they are also called pansies). These biennials can also not be sown in a box, but picked up by bushes in the spring from the garden. Plants feel well in a limited space, besides, after the flowering they throw seeds into the ground. If the land in the box is not changed, then the next season you can wait for the emergence of self-sowing.

Herbs and spicy herbs

An important role in the matter of what can be grown on the balcony is played by location and natural illumination. So, if you are the owner of the balcony door exit on the south side, then you can safely grow any spicy herbs. Otherwise, there is a simple rule for choosing the material for landing. So, the height of an adult plant should not exceed half a meter - it is in this case that the seedlings will feel quite at ease in a compressed space. The ideal option for planting on the balcony are herbs and spices, reaching a height of not more than 30 cm. To exemplary "balcony" inhabitants can be considered thyme, sage, oregano, lemon balm. Perennial spicy herbs can be formed, like a tree, pruning the tops at any desired height. In this case spices will fill the whole space after 3-4 years.

If the balcony is located in the penumbra, the ideal option for cultivation is parsley, dill, coriander, rosemary and sage.

Glazed balcony conditions

The answer to the question about what can be grown on the balcony in the summer, in part we gave. In addition, we examined some features of the location, Now it's time to talk about the conditions of the glazed balcony. Even growing unpretentious greens and spicy herbs, it is always important to remember that plants need oxygen for favorable development. That's why the windows on the balcony should be opened as often as possible. Another unpleasant factor for the life of crops can be scorching direct sunlight. Save the crops from the heat will help darken the glass with the help of improvised tools (paper, self-made curtains). There is also an option in which crops in the hours of the hottest sun can be removed to the floor.

Dwarf vegetables

For all vegetable lovers there is great news. It turns out that you can grow sweet peppers and eggplants on the balcony, because the breeders have dwarf varieties of these remarkable vegetables. Also, cherry tomatoes and dwarf chili peppers are not bad at all in extreme urban conditions . Let's not forget about the onion feather on the greens. Now it remains to solve the problem of accommodation, to perform basic care and wait for the harvest.

Placing in trays

Vegetables when planted in a box can be combined with herbs. The main thing is to remember that spices have a peculiarity to overgrow. Therefore, the distance between seedlings must be at least 20 centimeters. Also, it's no secret that you can grow flowers on a balcony, not only flowers, but also vegetables. Only for vegetable seedlings will fit only pots of large diameter, because the better the root system develops , the more fruits it will bring. Even with this method of planting, plants will require increased watering and feeding. The optimal container for planting vegetables on the balcony is a bucket of medium volume (5-10 liters).

We form a bed in a peat bag

If space and conditions allow, right on the floor of the balcony (sometimes using special stands or an old table), you can arrange a peat bed. To do this, go to the store and buy a large bag of peat. We will not unpack the bag, put it on the floor or on the table top and make small square cuts along the perimeter along the saplings. To prevent moisture from stagnating, we also create small holes in the bottom of the bag. Now we know that you can grow vegetables on the balcony in summer on an improvised bed. It remains only to provide the appropriate pallets under the receptacle and regularly moisten the peat. The eastern and western side of the windows are the most suitable for a good harvest. Sunlight is enough for plants, and it is not scorching at all.

What can I grow on the balcony: early vegetables

How did we still not mention radish, leaf lettuce and rukole? But the small size and speed of ripening of early vegetables in themselves speak for a good adaptation to the conditions on the balcony. Some urban vegetable growers manage to shoot not one crop per summer. As containers are usually used boxes-nurseries or pots of medium size.

Variety of options

Such seed plants, like onions, garlic, beans and peas, are also not against living in a balcony. Few people know that you can grow on the balcony and berry bushes. So, not bad get accustomed to unusual conditions of a strawberry. Many experimenters try to grow cucumbers on the windowsills. In this case, you can safely carry cucumber seedlings and a balcony. This is especially true of hybrid and salad varieties.

What can be stored and grown in winter?

And you did not know that you can grow a fragrant marjoram on the balcony in the winter? After all, it freezes only in conditions of open air space. Try to plant it in the summer, do not clean under the winter, and delicate fragrant shoots will please you on cold evenings. Also for the winter you can leave the basil, but only until this beautiful one-year plant does not end the life cycle.

Some tips

• In order to collect the harvest in a glassed-in balcony in the winter, you need to cut off a basil, a salad or greens not by a whole bush, but by a leaf.
• Carry out fertilizing only in a moist substrate, otherwise the roots of plants can get burned.
• For the growth of vegetables, peaty soil or a special one suitable for each particular species is best suited.
• In the tanks for landing, a good drainage layer is required.
• If a plant on a balcony is hit by pests, it is better to get rid of it, rather than to introduce chemicals. Natural marrows for parasites are planted next to the vegetable culture marigolds and fragrant basil.