How do I grow vegetables on a balcony?

Balconies get more light and more wind than most gardens, and containers dry out far faster than ground. Both point to the same answer: big pots, wind shelter, and crops that repay a small area.

What you'll need

• Large containers with drainage
• Peat-free compost
• Watering can (optional)
• Windbreak or trellis (optional)

Step by step

1. Check how much sun the space actually gets.Watch across a day. Six hours or more suits tomatoes, chillies and beans. Three to four hours suits salad, herbs and leafy greens.
2. Check what weight the balcony can carry.Wet compost is heavy. For a large number of big containers on a balcony, this is worth confirming rather than assuming.
3. Use the largest containers you can accommodate.Bigger pots hold more water and buffer temperature. Small pots on a hot balcony can dry out completely within a single day.
4. Choose crops that repay a small space.Cut-and-come-again salad, herbs, chillies, cherry tomatoes, radish, spring onions. Skip anything sprawling — courgettes, squash, maincrop potatoes.
5. Use peat-free multipurpose compost with added slow-release feed.Container plants have only what you give them, and nutrients wash out with every watering.
6. Set up a windbreak if it is exposed.Wind dries plants out fast and snaps stems. Trellis, mesh or a row of tougher plants on the windward side helps a great deal.
7. Plan to water daily in summer, sometimes twice.This is the real commitment of balcony growing. Water-retaining granules and mulch on the pot surface reduce it but do not remove it.
8. Feed weekly once plants are established.Tomato feed suits most fruiting crops; a balanced feed suits leafy ones.

Tips

• Grow vertically — trellis, hanging baskets and railing planters multiply a small footprint considerably.
• Herbs give the best return per square centimetre of anything you can grow, both in money and in how often you use them.
• Group pots together. It reduces wind exposure and raises humidity between them, cutting watering noticeably.

Common mistakes

• Using small pots — They dry out within hours in summer heat, and plants in them are permanently stressed.
• Skipping drainage holes — Waterlogged compost kills roots quickly. Every container needs holes and needs to not stand in a saucer of water.
• Growing sprawling crops in containers — Squash, courgettes and maincrop potatoes need space and produce poorly in pots. Compact, high-value crops are the point.

Questions people ask