It is not particularly easy to grow a varied vegetable garden in pots on a top floor balcony.
Certain plants, like tomatoes or herbs, take well to the confined space of the potted environment. Others may grow moderately well given the circumstances – one year I sowed carrots in an old dish pan and ended up with about a dozen baby-sized carrots at the end. Some we try because everything points to success, only to have it fail anyway. Good examples of this include the year I got a good start trying snap peas only to have all of my plants wiped out by a blight, or the strawberry plants that baked in their hanging baskets because our balcony has no protection from the sun.
Having grown up in an atmosphere where gardening was a way of life, the most difficult part of apartment living has always been the lack of freedom I’ve had as far as growing crops was concerned. I haven’t let it stop me – in the seven years I’ve been at this I’ve also tried a blueberry bush (low success – it lived, but the fruit was always very small), chives (did well), leaf lettuce (did very well), green onion (moderate, as I got a pretty late start on them after transplanting from someone else’s garden, but we’re trying again this year), and various flowers. This year’s crop experiments include a lot of cat grass (I’ve grown before, but with two kittens who actually paw at the door and cry for it I ended up going and sowing a lot more); cat nip, oregano, and basil (all grown before); trying green onions and carrots again; cherry tomatoes; new strawberry plants (which hopefully won’t bake this time); and for our what-the-hell-let’s-try-its, I have cucumber and small pumpkins going too. I’ve never tried the latter two in pots before, so we’ll see how it goes.
I’m trying to be smarter about my space this year too. Using an over-the-door show organizer and some bubble wrap, I combined a couple of ideas I saw on Pintrest to build some hanging-wall pockets to hold my plants. The bubble wrap acts as some insulation and helps keep the water in, and the rows of plants stacked on top of one another are helping to protect one another from the direct sunlight. I still have to be careful about the plants in the top tier and make sure they get extra water, but an added bonus is that since the pouches are clear plastic, I can see if the whole pod is dried out and better evaluate how much water each pod needs. Because the pockets are deeper, I’m hoping I can grow some slightly larger carrots and onions too – we’ll see.
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