My Balcony Garden Plan for 2022

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Mar 21

Spring is officially HERE! And you know what that means… summer isn’t too far behind it! I’m not really all that excited for the muggy, humid weather to be perfectly honest, but I’m always excited for the idea of home-grown herbs for cooking, and beautiful flowers all over my balcony (especially in that time between spring & summer where it’s just hot and not disgustingly sweaty!).

Normally, the golden rule for where I live is to start your gardening over the May long weekend. Usually by then, it’s safe to say that there will be no more frosts and your plants should be good-to-go. May is still a little ways away, so to fill that gardening void, I’m starting to plan out what I’m going to plant this year — so let’s get started!

What Flowers Do I Want to Plant?

Starting with the flowers I want to plant and where. Since I have a balcony and no backyard, I’m limited to planting in individual pots and my over-the-railing planters I got last year from Ikea. In the individual pots, I generally like to plant things like lavender, daisies, dahlias and my personal favourites, hibiscus flowers. Hibiscuses remind me of being on the beaches in Hawai’i, so they’re now one of my absolute favourite plants to have apart of my balcony garden.

In my over-the-railing planters, I like to keep things a bit more uniform and last year I went with geraniums, though I will say they are by no means my favourite flowers. I’m hoping this year to be able to get my hands on some classic white daisies to fill up all 3 of my planters. All of this being said, I’m hoping to keep all of the flowers to a colour scheme of pink/purple, white & green, so I’ll be on the hunt for flowers in these colours at the garden centres this year!

What Vegetables & Herbs Do I Want to Plant?

Since our balcony gets partial sun/partial shade, we’re being very strategic this year about what herbs & veggies we want to plant. Last year, we went out on a limb & got some tiny jalapeño peppers alongside our herbs, but this year, we’re going for lettuce, arugula and maybe even radishes & kale! As far as herbs go, I like to keep it pretty much the same — basil, parsley, chives and mint. Apparently cilantro is a good partial sun/partial shade plant, but I never seem to have much luck with it! That being said, I hate cilantro, so it doesn’t bother me as much as it bugs my fiancé who loves it.

Even though our balcony is partial sun & shade, and I just said that I was going to be smarter about growing things that thrive in these conditions, I’m thinking I might give cherry tomatoes a shot this year too! We do have one small section that gets more than 6 hours of sunlight, so why not give it a try, right?!

So that’s my plan for my little balcony garden this year! One of my favourite things about the gardening season is that no matter what size of space you’re working with, or what sun conditions, there’s always something you can grow. Plus, it’s so satisfying when you sit down for dinner knowing you’ve grown your own vegetables & herbs that you’re about to enjoy.