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 a 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 beautiful 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 here.
Here’s a bit of what other people are saying about Life on the Balcony:
“This love poem to container gardening and planting in tiny spaces proves that no bare earth is no excuse not to garden.”
–Sunset Magazine
“Whether you are looking for ideas to brighten up your balcony garden, or simply looking for pot designs to incorporate around your front door, from veggies, to cactus Fern is your girl!”
–Green Gardenista
“Life on the Balcony also looks like it would be a great reference for anyone who is seeking to grow their foods through container gardening.”
–Keeper of the Home
“Fern lives in a small space apartment, blogs about pots, vertical veggies and other urban subjects, and lives in Long Beach.”
–Orange County Register
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. There is 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. I live in an urban Southern California apartment with my husband (check out his guitar blog) and four cats. I have no balcony, but I do have a couple sunny windowsills and a South facing front porch. I grow herbs, peaches, apples, vegetables, flowers and succulents. And I still have cuttings from my Grandma’s ivy and philodendron (see this post about Remembering My Grandma).
When I’m not blogging here at Life on the Balcony, I am busy container gardening for other people. In September of 2008, I started One Pot at a Time, a container garden design business. What can I say, I love combining plants in pots so much, that my own patio isn’t enough!
You can also find me on:
