To enjoy vegetables and herbs from your own garden, it is not necessary to build a heated greenhouse or spend all the time in the country. Many city dwellers use the available housing to the fullest, creating greenhouses and gardens on the balcony. How to do it right, we will tell in our article.
Everything goes according to plan
The first step to the "development" of the balcony - proper planning. Before purchasing boxes and soil, you need to take a piece of paper and a pen, draw a scale of the available area and place in the figure all the elements of the future garden. The drawing not only indicates the location of the boxes, but also marks that they plan to land.
Sunny side
For plants, the organization of additional lighting is essential. To save on electricity and equipment, it is better to plan in advance the maximum load on sections of the balcony that receive enough light from the sun.
More light
If the balcony faces the north or west side, then you can not do without additional lighting. Therefore, even before placing the pots, you need to draw an additional line for fluorescent lamps or phytolamps. Without illumination, plants will be drawn to sunlight, and the phases of flowering and ovary formation may not occur. For containers with vegetables, it will be optimal to the best of light, well-ventilated, but protected from drafts.
Prepare carefully
Before deciding on growing vegetables or perennials on the balcony, you need to calculate the maximum loads that a particular room can bear. If the balcony slabs are old, in some places the concrete layer moves away from the reinforcement, then in such rooms it is worthwhile to limit yourself to growing greens or indoor varieties of vegetables.
First crop
To get a friendly crop of vegetables, you must first study the specialized literature on the timing of planting plants and ripening fruits. Tomatoes have a longer growing season than cucumbers. Radish is considered to be the most ripening vegetable, therefore seeds are sown at the desired date of harvest. You can buy a special calendar for the gardener-summer resident, which will indicate not only the ripening dates, but also favorable and unfavorable days for planting crops.
Tara
After the calculations are completed and when the scheme of the future garden balcony is ready, you can proceed with the selection of containers. Shallow containers are suitable for radishes, wall panels are suitable for the cultivation of strawberries and spices, boxes or flowerpots are needed for cucumbers and tomatoes. Typically, for vegetable crops, balcony boxes of two colors are offered - white or terracotta. Dark containers with plenty of sunlight quickly heat up, which leads to overheating of the root system of plants. If you bought dark boxes, then it is better to wrap them with white paper. You need to pay attention to the presence of drainage holes that will remove excess moisture.
Priming
You can sow the seeds of vegetables in any nutrient substrate, but it is best to purchase specialized soil for indoor vegetables for these purposes. After harvesting (for example, radish) and before the next sowing of seeds, the topsoil is completely replaced with a new one. Some plants and flowers prefer specialized soil. For example, azaleas and strawberries grow well on soils with high acidity.
Since the plants will be in a limited amount of soil, they need more fertilizer than when grown in open soil. The purchased substrate contains a complex of minerals and organics, but two to three months after planting, the vegetables need to be fertilized. Preferred is complex dressing, which you need to choose according to the current stage of plant development. To build green mass, nitrogen is needed, to form the ovary - potassium and phosphorus.
Diversity
To make the balcony more attractive, you need to plant not only vegetables or greens, but also decorate the remaining empty seats with flowers. You can close the empty walls behind the drawers with climbing plants. The empty space and chlorophytum will revive. Above the upper tier of pots, where there is enough sunlight, you can let the whip of the hoya.
More color
In winter, the lack of bright colors in the surrounding area is especially acute. Therefore, be sure to find a place for room strawberries or wild strawberries on the balcony. They do not have to be grown in the classical way - beds. On sale you can find multi-tiered pots where strawberries feel great. Bright red fresh berries will cheer you up and will be additional natural vitamins.
Flower bonus
The logical conclusion of the vegetable composition on the balcony will be the placement of indoor flowers. In shaded places, stands with varietal violets are put up; roses or geraniums are placed in lighted areas. And you can go further - to plant bells, mattiola or hyacinths. Such a garden will also attract a unique aroma.
A garden on the balcony is a useful hobby. And the point here is not even in the crop, which can be used all year round. Pleasant care relieves fatigue and stress after a working day. Thanks to the microclimate that is created on the balcony, the plants bear fruit better. They are not as susceptible to pests and diseases as when grown in open ground.
