I am lucky to live in an apartment building that has a medium-sized balcony.
During winter, I tend to forget about it entirely; it’s too cold and rainy to enjoy it. The only positive about it is that the balcony furniture serves as a view blocker from the street.
Now that spring is here and the temperature is rising, I am enjoying leaving the balcony door open for the fresh air and connection to the outside world. As I work from home, this is very important to me.
It is time to bring the balcony back to life.
The past few years, I’ve enjoyed growing as many veggies and herbs as possible, trying different seeds, experimenting, and figuring out as I went. It was a ton of fun, and I have learned a lot from that process. I also understand better how growing from seeds takes time, and I can save time, but not money, by buying starter plants. I love growing from seeds, but this year I want to find the right balance between gardening time and other hobbies I enjoy, like reading.
I have this image of a balcony with flowers, kitchen herbs, maybe a few veggies like salads, but nothing that will need any time-intensive care. I also want to remove a lot of the planters I have. I was growing a lot of things in fabric planters the last few years. They were amazing in that experimenting phase, but I am now looking at having a less jungle-like, more organized type of space.
I was happy to find modular planters from a Canadian company called Garant. I’d been eyeing these planters for years, and this year I finally decided it was time.
I was happy to find them discounted at my local hardware store. They were really easy to install, and I was able to repurpose the soil from the other planters. Because they are modular, it is possible to stack them, ensuring I have room to enjoy the balcony but also grow more plants than if they weren’t stacked!
As of today, I was able to clean up and remove most of the fabric planters. The new modular ones now have a dahlia at the top (it’s my first year growing dahlia, so I am very excited!) and I transferred the parsley to another one of the containers.
I’ve already found myself going out on the balcony more. I especially enjoy having coffee first thing in the morning when the street is still quiet.
My goal for the weeks to come is to find more flowers for the top planter to add on each side of the dahlia. I’m thinking of carnations. I want to find more herbs that I can use for cooking. I’m thinking in particular of basil and dill, as I already have parsley and mint. The big change this year is that I want to try to grow salad and greens. I’ve never tried, so I need to learn more about how that works. I love cooking and I am excited at the idea of just walking to the balcony for a bit of freshness to add to the meal I am preparing.
Stay tuned for updates! If all goes well, by July I’ll be sipping morning coffee surrounded by fresh herbs and flowers, which is exactly what I had in mind.
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