You can do a lot with a tiny balcony, especially in winter. Winter growing flowers like pansies ($1.49) and heartsease (99c), or poppies ($2.49) can go in to pots in the sun and will flower throughout winter, and bring happiness wherever they go.
Some spring bulbs ($5-12) will even grow in pots provided they are well nourished with fertiliser, and now is a good time to plant them.
In our apartment, our garden gets fertilised with gold-fish tank water and rabbit castings. The plants flourish and we grow different things every year. These two fertilisers are completely free – they come from our pets. We got a lot of our ceramic pots from the side of the road, and bought a few as we saw them. Again, this part of our garden was mostly free, and saved a bunch of stuff from landfill.
Balcony vegetables are a great way to save money and be healthy. In winter time, sugar snap peas, snow peas, beetroot, turnip, raddish, spinach and silverbeet grow well. You might even get some winter lettuces, basil and coriander. If you grow herbs, lettuce, spinach or silverbeet in a pot, sow the seeds thickly and then thin leaf by leaf. You don’t have to cut the whole lot off at the root – just take to leaves you need each day for your meals and in a few days you will get another meal out of the same plant.
We are all the children of the earth and the children of God. Grow your heart’s garden and grow your veggie garden. Let all of us flourish.
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Check out Gill Robson on Youtube @GillRobson
Awesome Photos, Lil.