Do you dream of having a garden you can enjoy with its colors and scents? But then you’re not crazy about lying on your knees removing weed all day…
The perfect solution?
A vertical balcony garden.
A balcony garden offers you limited space. You can still turn it into a beautiful haven with editable and/or pretty plants, especially if you make part of your balcony a vertical garden.
When you add vertical elements, you’ll not only make room for more plants. You’ll also obtain a better-looking design.
It’s important to plan your garden before you start and before you build or buy materials. This saves you from becoming upset about wasted money on racks and setups you cannot use anyway. Or just the extra work of having to move things around after they were finished.
Planning Your Balcony Garden for Optimal Vertical Positions
There are two definitions of vertical gardens. One is that it consists of hydroponics. The other is that it’s simply a garden in which the plants are supported to grow along vertical, often tiered surfaces, especially fences, posts, trellises, and walls, rather than along the ground. (Source: Dictionary.com)
In this article, I will use the second definition because you can use this kind of garden to make your balcony garden optimal.
To plan your place in the best way, it’s best if you have the plans over your balcony and you must know how much sun there are in all places of your balcony. So this planning will span over at least one day.
Get the Plans Over Your Balcon
If it’s possible to get the plans over your balcony, it will make everything easier. If not, then you can simply measure it and draw your own blueprint.
Every wall can potentially serve as background for a rack or setup. You can use the baluster for pots to hang over.
You still need to consider that there should be enough space between the plants so you can reach them to take care of them or to harvest the produce.
How Much Sun Is There?
The ideal would be to measure the amount of sun over the course of a year, but unless you’re immensely patient, you’ll probably want your balcony faster than that.
I suggest that you check your balcony for at least one day.
Start in the morning and make notes about where the sun hits your balcony. Which areas are in the light, and which are in the shade.
Go to your balcony at the top of every hour and take notes.
That will not just show you the best placements for your racks, but also give you important information about which plants you can grow successfully on your balcony.
Once you have your plan and know how much space you have for racks and setups, and you know where it’s ideal to place them based on the amount of sun that area of the balcony gets, it’s time to buy or build your vertical garden.
Getting Your Perfect Racks and Setups
With the right choices, you can make optimal use of the space of your balcony. And you can get several different setups for that purpose.
The most commonly used are:
- Vertical elevated planters
- Hanging vertical gardens
- Hanging pots for railing fences
Vertical Elevated Planters
Imagine leaning a ladder against the wall and hook containers over each step for your plants.
That’s how vertical elevated planters often look, except they are way more stable than a ladder.
These racks allow you to have several rows of containers with plants vertically against a wall.
Some of them have the rows staggered. This makes for a pretty result but it also takes up more space, because the lowest row are much farther away from the wall than the top row.
If space is an issue, you can get vertical elevated planters with rows that are aligned on top of each other. This makes it look more like a rack in a gardening store or supermarket, but it’s convenient because it takes up less space.
Hanging Vertical Gardens
Instead of having racks, you can get hanging vertical gardens to fasten on your wall.
Some of these are made out of thick fabric with pockets. Others are made out of metal with pots hanging from them.
These hanging vertical gardens are ideal for small balconies, because they don’t take up much space, and they still allow you to grow plenty of plants in a limited spot.
Hanging Pots for Railing Fences
Finally, we have the railing fences. You’ve probably admired houses that had flowers hanging from the outside of their balconies. A typical flower for this purpose is geranium, which you can get in many different colors.
You can also get hanging pots for the inner side of your railing fence. And you can grow all kinds of plants in those:
- Herbs
- Flowers
- Vegetables
They are ideal for using all the space you can find on your balcony, and they also serve as decoration.
Taking Care of Your Vertical Garden
Your plants need care, just like in any other garden.
You won’t have much work to do fighting weeds. But you’ll still have to water your plants and give them fertilizers from time to time.
Grow your plants in quality soil you get from a gardening store. The type you buy for potty plants is ideal. It’s also easy to find and to carry home.
You won’t need any tools for this kind of garden, other than a watering can (of self-watering pots) and a scissor to take care of withered leaves, cutting flowers, and harvesting vegetables.
There You Have It: Your Successfully Created Vertical Garden on Your Balcony
It takes some planning at first, and buying the right racks and setups. After that, you can mostly just spend your time enjoying your balcony garden. Keep an eye on your plants’ needs like watering and fertilizing, and you’re good to go.