How to Prepare a Balcony Garden – Container Gardening

Spring is here and it is time to head outside and prepare for the gardening season. I enjoy the time I spend each spring fixing up my balcony garden.

There are rules that I am required to follow for using my balcony and this can sometimes leave me with limited ideas. We aren’t allowed BBQ’s or hanging baskets (although many break the rules) and definitely no drilling into the walls. Being 17 floors up, I would hate to see my beautiful flowers fly off on a windy day.

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How to Prepare a Balcony Garden

Find the right spot to add your flower pots on the balcony or deck. Buy plants that will go with the type of light that your space gets throughout the day. My balcony faces the west. We get full sun from about 1pm-7pm. I buy plants that thrive in the direct sun and like to add a mixture of herb and flowers to my space.

Small Balcony Space 4×8

Seeds or Starter Plants

I buy a few starter plants and plant seeds to begin. This gives different heights to the garden when I transplant into new pots. I choose a variety of herbs and flowers that I enjoy and love.

Start your seeds indoors between March and April, so that you are ready to transplant into bigger containers or your garden bed in late May. Most seeds will germinate within a week or two but some may take a bit longer.

My daughter and I have only just started our seeds in the peat pots and pods. I am a bit behind, like every year. She enjoys watching the seeds grow into plants.

2 days growth and some will be ready for bigger pots by the weekend. Lettuce, Basil and Cilantro

Containers and Peat Pots/Pods

Containers should be washed and cleaned before each use and make sure that they have proper drainage. To add drainage to pots, you can either drill holes in the bottom or add rocks to the bottoms of the pots before you add the dirt.

To begin I picked up a package of peat pods with a lid, this will hold the moisture in once you have watered and planted the seeds of choice. Soak the peat pods for about 10 minutes before adding seeds.  Add a few seeds into each pod then cover and set in a warm spot. Once the seeds have broken through the dirt you can remove the lid. Plant outside after the last frost.

Adding Garden Accessories

When you don’t have a huge space but like garden accessories, find some that are smaller in size and fits your garden theme. For us, we set up a little fairy garden each year on our Balcony garden.

A Milk crate Fairy Garden

I think that my main focus will be lighting for the night time and I will have it tie into my fairy garden.

Over the weekend I spent quite a bit of time on Amazon Canada, looking for the perfect items to add to my oasis. Below are a few of the ones I will be purchasing once my balcony is all set up with plants. My top priority is getting fairy lights to enjoy my garden after the sun sets.

Have you started your gardening yet? What accessories do you put in your garden?

Check out Balcony Gardens or A Fairy Garden in a Drawer.