About
Hi there! I’m Fern Richardson. Yes, that is my real name. I’m one of those people with a name that really fits them.
Life on the Balcony is an award winning blog about the container gardening tips and tricks I’ve picked up over the last few years of growing plants on tiny balconies and patios and creating container gardens for my clients. From time to time you’ll also find great recipes best enjoyed or made outdoors and other outdoor living ideas for balconies, patios and small decks.
If this is your first time stopping by, I suggest checking out this page to get a better sense of what you can expect from my posts on Life on the Balcony.
Here’s a bit of what other people are saying about Life on the Balcony:
- Winner of The Mouse & Trowel award for Best Container Gardening Blog.
- “This love poem to container gardening and planting in tiny spaces proves that no bare earth is no excuse not to garden.”
–Sunset Magazine - “Fern lives in a small space apartment, blogs about pots, vertical veggies and other urban subjects, and lives in Long Beach.”
–Orange County Register - I was named one of 14 gardening gurus to follow on Twitter by BuildingDirect.com.
- Proven Winners said Life on the Balcony was their favorite blog of the week.
- P. Allen Smith listed Life on the Balcony as one of 10 great gardening blogs.
About Me:
I have been gardening in small spaces for as long as I can remember. When I was about nine, I read a book about saving the environment (and you thought “green living” was new!) by planting habitats for endangered animals and insects. I faithfully brewed some “manure tea” and set to work cultivating plants in a small planter in my parents small suburban yard. My grandma Char caught wind of my new found interest in gardening and started giving me cuttings from her garden. Until just a year ago, there was a very pregnant onion in my parents’ backyard that is testament to my first garden, started with hand-me-down plants and some mosquito-infested “fertilizer.”
In between then and now, I earned a BA in graphic design and a law degree, although I don’t practice, nor do I work as a graphic designer. In 2010 I became a certified master gardener in Orange County, CA. And in 2011 I started working as a marketing manager for Kellogg Garden Products. I am so happy to be–finally–working in the gardening world! Looking forward, my book about small space container gardening is going to be published in 2012.
I live in an urban Southern California condo with my husband (check out his guitar blog) and four cats. I have a west facing balcony, and an east facing front porch, all-in-all my garden is about 50 square feet. I grow herbs, peaches, nectarines, figs, blueberries, flowers and succulents.
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