How to a Start Balcony Vegetable Garden?

Everyone wants to live a healthy life, and what better way to start than with some new eating habits? Start growing vegetables on your own balcony, and your next meal will be better than ever, from the garden to the table.A balcony is one overlooked place that you can turn into a small vegetable garden.Balcony vegetable garden is not rocket science. Don’t let the small space of your apartment stop you from growing greens.

All you need to start gardening is a little space and good sunlight for a balcony vegetable garden. A word of warning: don’t try to try and fit too many vegetables into your first meal. Start with simple vegetables and then move on to more difficult ones. Not only does gardening give you fresh food that you like, but it also helps you relax your mind. Having a home garden where you grow vegetables is a great way to improve your life quickly. We’ve listed the most important tips for a balcony vegetable garden and a few vegetables you can grow on a balcony to get you started.

 Growing Balcony Vegetable Garden

(1) Location

Your location—the orientation of your balcony garden and the amount of sunshine it receives—determines what you can grow and what you cannot in the balcony vegetable garden. The more bright and sunny, the better!

You can plant anything on a balcony that faces south or west because you’ll have sunshine virtually all day. The early sun shines on an east-facing balcony, providing enough light for most greens, herbs, and root vegetables.

On the other hand, a North-facing balcony typically remains shaded all year round, and growing vegetables in the shadow are difficult. However, you can still try mustard greens, bok choy, green onions, parsley, peas, cilantro, fenugreek, and lettuce on your balcony vegetable garden.

(2) Containers for Balcony Vegetable Garden

Before buying pots for your balcony garden, you should consider whether you want to grow vegetables for ornamental purposes or for regular consumption. If you want to grow multiple vegetables simultaneously, go for propagation trays and window boxes where many plants can grow together.

If the way your balcony vegetable garden looks is important to you, choose colorful pots, decorative barrels, urns, and modern designer planters.Remember that the pot size needs to match the plants’ needs and how quickly they grow.

In a 3–5 gallon container, you can grow peppers, eggplants, peas, and cherry tomatoes. Tall tomato varieties and beans can be grown in big pots. To save space, you can grow vegetable seedlings in a seed tray or a small container. After a while, they need to be moved to bigger pots.

Railings and vertical planters are also great ways to use a balcony’s small space. On a tower planter, you can grow salad greens and hang small pots of herbs from the railings.

(3) Soil

Potted vegetables require loose, well-drained, fertile, and nutrient-rich soil. You can buy the potting mix from a store to do this.

Add a slow-release fertilizer, well-rotted manure, or compost to your soil as well. You can add hydrogel crystals, too, if your balcony is windy and sunny. Hydrogel crystals soak up the extra water and store it so the plant’s roots can get it directly.

If you can, you should test your soil at home to determine its pH level. Most vegetables grow in soil that is slightly acidic to neutral (6-7 pH). Once you know whether your soil is acidic or alkaline, you can change it to suit the plant you want to grow.

(4) Preparing Seedlings

On a seed tray, you can sow seeds for vegetables. Once the top two leaves have grown, you can move them. Some vegetables don’t do well when moved, so it’s best to start them off in their own pots.

Some vegetables, like gourds, melons, turnips, and squashes, don’t move well and get hurt when they are moved. So, you must either plant them right where you want them or be very careful when you handle their seedlings in the balcony vegetable garden.

If you don’t want to plant seeds, you can buy transplants of vegetables from a nursery. Buy healthy plants that are free of pests and diseases.

(5) Planting Vegetables

The best days to move seedlings are cloudy ones with moist soil. This helps the new plants get off to a good start. It would be best if you did planting in the late afternoon or evening on sunny days.

Before you move the seedlings, please give them a lot of water. This will keep them from getting shocked and stop the soil around the roots from breaking down.

The right depth should be used to plant seeds. You can plant tomatoes deeper and cover up to the first set of leaves. This makes the new roots grow, which helps the plant grow stronger. But heads can’t grow on lettuce that is planted too deep. In the same way, celery does not like to be planted deep.

Basic Tips for Caring Balcony Vegetable Garden

It is essential to water the plants in the right way. Don’t make these mistakes in your balcony vegetable garden.

1. Watering your plants at night makes them more likely to get fungal diseases, which leaves them open to pests. It is best to water your plants in the morning.
2. Once the plants get used to the microclimate of your balcony, all they need is water, fertilizer, and the occasional trimming of dead or damaged leaves, as well as the removal of suckers if you’re growing tomatoes or eggplants.
3. Most of the time, you should feed your plants every two to four weeks with a balanced liquid fertilizer or add compost or well-rotted manure to your vegetables and herbs twice during the growing season.
4. To keep pests from killing your plants in the balcony vegetable garden, keep picking them off by hand or spraying them with water jets, and grow plants that pests don’t like.
5. Use organic pesticides, homemade insecticidal soap, and neem oil to get rid of pests and diseases that are very bad.If you like organic gardening, do not use chemical pesticides and fungicides on your balcony vegetable garden.

5 Simple Vegetables for Balcony Vegetable Garden

(1) Spinach

Spinach is easy to grow in a balcony vegetable garden, whether you start with seeds or a transplant. It’s important to remember that the smaller varieties do better in pots and other containers.

Sow seeds at least an inch apart in the soil to start growing spinach. After three weeks, you can move the containers outside.

Place transplants at least 6 inches apart in a pot if you are working with them. Spinach needs regular water to grow, so you may want to water it often.

(2) Tomatoes

No matter what kind of tomato it is—heirloom, cherry, or exotic—you can grow it in your balcony vegetable garden.

This fruit is often used as a vegetable, so it’s fine. The easiest way to do this is to cut a good tomato into four pieces and bury them about half an inch deep in good soil.

You can start with a smaller pot and move to bigger ones as the plant grows.

(3) Radish

Radish grows quickly, so you won’t have to wait months before you can use your vegetables in the kitchen. Long radishes can be grown in deep pots because they grow down.

The best soil for them is a mix of red soil, manure, and cocopeat. Radishes are root vegetables that grow well on shady balconies and taste great in many dishes.

Plant each seed about half an inch deep, and don’t put more than two seeds in each pot, so they have room to grow.

(4) Pumpkins

Pumpkins can grow just as well in containers in balcony vegetable gardens as in acres of soil. But a container that is 3 feet wide and deep enough to hold soil will help.

A layer of compost is a must because it gives the plant the food it needs to grow. Don’t put more than three or four seeds in each pot.

Once the seeds have sprouted, you should only have two seedlings in each pot.

(5) Peppers

Capsicum, another name for bell pepper, is a popular ingredient in Indian, European, and Chinese cooking. So, it makes sense that it would be a great plant for your balcony vegetable garden.

They do well in pots made of clay, plastic, or terracotta that drain well. Plant dry capsicum seeds about 2 to 3 centimeters into the sandy soil and keep the pot in a dry and humid place.

The plant stays pretty small, but as the peppers start to grow, you’ll need to give it some support, so it stays neat, and the peppers are easy to pick for lunch or dinner.

Conclusion

You don’t need a green thumb or a lot of space to grow a balcony vegetable garden. Even though it might not seem like it, apartment dwellers have the same access to a lush vegetable garden as people who live in the country. If you want to start a balcony vegetable garden, we’ve put together a list of important tips and vegetables that are easy to grow and care for in cookie-cutter pots.