Container Gardening

Selecting Plants

One last way to make a new balcony garden look more established is to invest in several large shrubs. These can been rather pricey, but they are worth the expense if you can afford them. Where a limited budget or awkward access rules out grand plants, consider growing a hibiscus (Hibiscus rosa-siensis). They are reasonably priced, and a small plant will grow rapidly and produce large, showy blooms every year. Although some shrubs have the potential to grow very large, and are therefore considered less suitable than medium to small varieties, most can in fact be kept relatively compact by regular and careful pruning. Even if a plant proves unsuitable and is impossible to keep in check after a few years, it will still have given you a fair period of enjoyment, so do not allow lack of space to restrict your choice too much.

The Scented Balcony

Plants bearing sweet smelling flowers are ideally suited to pots and tubs in balcony gardens, since their scent will be enjoyed from inside the house as well as outside. Quick growing scented annuals, such as sweet peas and night-scented stocks, or bulbous plants, such as freesias, paperwhite, daffodils, and hyacinthis, are excellent choices.

For the longer term, consider growing fragrant climbing jasmine (either Jasminum officinale or l.polyanthum). Wisteria is another option, but will need hard pruning if it is to be kept under control.

Selection of Trailing Plants

Almost any container planting is enhanced by the addition of trailing plants, which allow you to experiment more with color and texture. In their season, trailing plants such as lobelias and petunias will bring almost instant bright color to a dull spot. For a more subtle effect, choose ivy geraniums and Verbena x hybrida. Trailing and some climbing plants can also be encouraged to sprawl over and through railings if containers of a suitable height are arranged close to the edge. Many plants, including trailing plain, and variegated English ivies, aubrieta, periwinkle (Vina minor or, in larger containers, its big brother V. major), and ivy geraniums are suitable.

Enhance the display of trailing perennials with a selection of annual trailers such as Swan River daisies (Brachycome iberidifolia) and nasturtlums- which seed and are edible as well. Also explore the potential of plants such as helichrysums, which are not strictly trailers but sprawl so expansively that they perform much the same function.

The Productive Balcony

Many vegetables and some fruits can be grown in containers on the balcony and except in extreme conditions should produce a good harvest. Apples grafted onto dwarfing rootstock, and most strawberry varieties, will grow well in posts. Also try tomatoes, potatoes, zucchini, sweet peppers, and salad vegetables, among other crops, which will Enlarge the scope of your aerial gardening further. Consider using stacking pots, with planting holes on their sides, handing baskets and strawberry jars with tiered planting holes that make maximum use of precious floor space to produce a cascade of fruit. Climbing vegetables, such as lima beans, pole beans, hyacinth, and peas look good grown up wires, or on a wigwam, or on the balcony railing. Combine your favorite crops with a selection of culinary herbs grown in pots or troughs to create a miniature kitchen garden right where people would least expect to find one.