Earlier I posted about plants that can stand up to the wind and don’t mind getting only partial sun. In the comments section of that post, Yeye asked about full sun plants that are also wind tolerant. Ask, and ye shall receive! Check out the plants below that are tough enough to stand up to the wind and the sun.

Boltonia (False Aster)

A left coast native. Is actually benefitted by wind, as it helps prevent powdery mildew. Forms airy mounds that are covered in white, pink, or purple daisy-like flowers. Boltonia can get pretty large (3-4 feet tall and wide) so either plant it by istself, or with something that is pretty assertive in its own right.

Threadleaf Coreopsis (Coreopsis verticillata)

Beautiful summer flowers and finely cut foliage make the threadleaf coreopsis are just two of Threadleaf Coreopsis’s best features. It’s also drought tolerant, so you won’t have to water it constantly during heat waves (althoh don’t neglect it entirely!). Plants will only get to be about 12-18 inches tall, so they’d make a great “filler” in a multi-plant pot.

Russian Sage (Perovskia atriplicifolia)

Beautiful spires of purple flowers sit atop gray-green leaves. It gets pretty big, so it’s probably best to give this 3-5 footer it’s own pot (Or check out dwarf varieties, like ‘Little Spire’). They look very pretty near roses. If you want to grow herbs, you could use large pots of russian sage as a wind barrier. As a bonus, most herbs look great against russian sage.

Coneflower (Echinacea)

There are tons of different varieties of echinacea, and it comes of pink, white, orange, and yellow. The flowers look a little like daisies with much more prominent centers. The plants are pretty drought tolerant, which is great for hot windy areas where pots tend to dry out quickly.

Mexican Feather Grass (Nassella tenuissima)

A Texas native, the leaves are bright green and flowers in the summer. The flowers are somewhat taller than the foliage and are very fine in texture, looking very reminiscent to feathers. As the plant goes dormant in the summer the foliage becomes straw colored. Mexican Feather Grass can get up to 36 inches tall and grows in clumps. It’s also drought tolerant.

Great Combo to Try

Choose three large pots in successive sizes (for example, a 16 inch, 20 inch and 24 inch pot). Plant the largest with white boltonia, the medium sized pot with russian sage, and smallest with mexican feather grass. Easy peasy!

Buddleia, commonly known as ‘Butterfly Bush,’ is, as its name implies, a butterfly magnet. However, older varieties weren’t really suitable for container gardeners as the plants unmanageable and large. But recently a few dwarf varieties have popped up that are perfect for balconies and patios.

One such variety of Buddleia is called ‘Lo & Behold Blue Chip.’ It grows to be only 2-3 feet tall and wide and is hardy to zone 5. You can expect that it will be covered in flowers (that require no dead heading) and butterflies all season long. The cheapest I’ve found it for online was $17.95, so hopefully your local nursery will have better prices.

Related Posts

• Butterfly Garden Window Box
• Dwarf Cucumber Plants
• Tiny Tomatoes
• Balcony Sized Blueberries

Onions make almost anything taste better, but they do leave that pesky bad breath in their wake. Unfortunately, I don’t have a remedy for onion breath. But I do know how to grow onions in containers. It’s pretty easy, you should definitely give it a try. Just keep a lot of gum or mints with you when you’re taste testing.

Photo by Darwin Bell

What Kind of Containers Are Best

A long planter box that is at least 10 inches deep, 15 inches wide, and as long as your space will accommodate is your best bet. You don’t necessarily need to use a container originally meant for planting. An opaque plastic tub meant for organizing your closet will work just fine. Just be sure that you drill or punch holes in the bottom and raise the container up off the ground with pot feet or bricks.

Choosing The Right Kind of Plant

Seeds are the cheapest but take the longest to grow. Small onion plants are called “sets” and are a great compromise between cost and length of time until your breath is tinged with the smell of home grown onions. Transplants will cost more (but still very reasonable) and will allow you to grow the largest onion. Onions make great companion plants, check out that list to see which vegetables will grow best with them.

Another consideration is “short day” versus “long day.” Basically, onions don’t start growing a bulb until the temperature gets above a certain level and the number of hours of sunlight reaches a certain point. Short day plants need 10-12 hours of sunlight a day while long day onions need 14-16 hours. Northerners should pick long day and Southerners should pick short day varieties. Northern summers have looong days, perfect for long day onions, but not so good for the short day kind (too much daylight can cause onions to make their bulbs before they’re ready, resulting in smaller bulbs). Likewise, the comparatively fewer daylight hours during a Southern summer are perfect for short day varieties but not long enough for the long day kinds of onions.

Getting Started

• If you’re starting from seed, sow the seeds 2-3 months before your last frost date. Sow the seeds 1/2 inch deep. In everywhere but the most mild climates, you’ll need to start your seeds indoors as onions will need your entire outdoor growing season to do their thing.
• With sets, it’s best to wait until it’s consistently above 50 F outside before moving them outdoors. Plant them two inches deep and at least four inches apart.
• If you want really big onions, transplants are your best bet. Plant them at least five inches apart.
• Regardless of what stage of onion you start with, use good quality, fast draining potting soil amended with compost. Avoid potting soil that comes with a time-release fertilizer already mixed in.

Caring For Container Grown Onions

Remember that your onions need full sun, which means they need at least 6 hours of direct sunlight. Move them around your balcony if need be to make sure that, as the season progresses, they are still receiving enough sunshine.

Onions also need quite a bit of water. Whenever the top of the soil in their container is dry, it’s time to water. Pour about an inch of the wet stuff into the pot each time you water. In the height of summer, you may find yourself watering every three days. However, don’t over do it. Sopping wet soil all the time could lead your onions to rot.

There is no need to fertilize, and definitely don’t use a high nitrogen fertilizer. Nitrogen encourages leaf-growth at the expense of bulb development.

When the leaves start to yellow and die, it’s time to pull up your onions. However, if you see any flowers, pull the onions immediately, regardless of how the leaves look.

Combating Onion Pests

• If you are not using brand new potting soil, don’t grow onions in the same container where you’ve grown onions or other root vegetables or flowering bulbs before. Insects like bulb mites and onion maggots, that like to eat bulbs and roots are most common in places where those sorts of plants have been grown before.
• If you notice white blotches on your onion leaves, then you’ve probably got some onion thrips visiting your plants. If the party gets too large, your onions will not grow to be as big as they could have been, and if things get really bad, the thrips could kill your plant all together. Combat them with organic insecticide spray at the first sighting. Be sure to get the insecticide into the inner parts of the plants.

Sweet peas are such beautiful looking and smelling plants, and now a days there are so many different varieties, that there really is no reason to let lack of space stop you from growing them.

Photo by teal chick

Recently, Mimi of Israeli Kitchen, asked me this question:

“I’d like to plant some sweet peas in a windowsill – windowsills are all I have. But I’m concerned that they won’t get enough sun. Can you tell me how much sun exposure sweet peas need? I have fantasies of pink and purple flowers climbing up the security bars come springtime…”

Sweet peas generally need full sun to flower profusely, preferably morning sun, because most varieties don’t do too well in hot temperatures. Areas with direct afternoon sun tend to be hotter than those with morning sun. If you don’t think your intended spot gets 6 hours of sunshine, you might try a perennial sweet pea (Lathyrus latifolius) as opposed to an annual sweet pea (Lathyrus odoratus) because the perennial types seem tolerate more shade than the annual kinds. Although, as I mentioned, they won’t flower as much with less than 6 hours of direct sun. Long periods of dappled sunshine or indirect light might be able to make up for the lack of direct sun, depending on how bright the area is.

When growing sweet peas from seed, you need to “scarify” the hard outer coating of the seed. You can do this by rubbing the seed lightly with sand paper or nicking them with a nail clippers. In Mediterranean climates like Southern California or most parts of Israel, you can plant sweet peas as early as right now (late autumn), for mid-winter flowers, or in early spring, for late-spring flowers. Or, if you’re really organized, you can plant some right now and some in spring to extend your bloom time. If you live in a harsher climate, you can start them inside 4-6 weeks before your last frost and then transplant them as soon as your soil thaws or just sow the seed directly outside at that time.

For those small space gardeners who don’t want a vining variety to cover security bars or balcony railings (which the traditional varieties would be happy to do), there are newer types that form nice mounds for hanging baskets or pots, and don’t require a trellis. For example, check out Little Sweetheart or Knee High.

Are you an experienced sweet pea grower? What special tips or tricks do you have to get the most out of your plants? Do you have any recommendations for varieties that will flower without direct sun?

Don’t forget that the comment contest ends tonight at midnight, California time!

Sometimes it’s hard figuring our how much sun you particular balcony or patio gets. Afterall, you’re probably at work for part of the morning and all of the afternoon, and don’t want to spend your weekend glued to your balcony taking notes about the amount of sunshine it gets.

Well, I just came across a device that is made for you called SunCalc (you can purchase it from Burpee Seeds). You simply place SunCalc in a pot or the ground in the area you would like to measure. Make sure the face is parallel to the ground. Start off in the morning (between 7am and 9am) and leave it in place for 12 hours. When you retrieve it at night one of four lights will be illuminated, indicating whether that particular location gets either full shade, partial shade, partial sun, or full sun. SunCalc can then be reused in another location.

If your gardening space has walls on two or more sides, I would place the SunCalc in the middle front, middle back, and each side of your space. The walls may either shade or reflect sunshine for all or part of the day, and you may have different amounts of sunshine in different places, even on a small balcony. I would also test your garden in spring and fall, because the movement of the sun and change in the amount of leaves on nearby trees may also affect the amount of sun your balcony gets.

If you’re plants are struggling and you suspect the problem is that you selected the wrong type of plant for your amount of sunlight, this is definitely 30 bucks well spent.

Have you been spending a little too much time on your balcony? Or more precisely, have you been spending too much time in the great outdoors without proper sunscreen? Not good! I am sure you don’t need me to tell you all the negative effects of burning your skin.

Photo by Sebastian L.S.

I always wear a hat and usually wear sunscreen, but this past weekend, my hat wasn’t enough. I paid for it on Monday! Here are three natural remedies for sunburn:

• The June issue of Body + Soul magazine suggests that sunburns can be calmed by sponging strongly brewed, chilled tea on the area. Green or black, use whatever you have on hand, it doesn’t make a difference. It’s the tannins in tea that are anti-inflammatory, which will help sooth your inflamed skin.
• Willow Light, owner of Portland’s Spa Willamina, recommends a mixtures of 1 tbsp. aloe vera gel, 5 drops of lavender essential oil, 5 drops of chamomile essential oil and 1tbsp. sunflower oil. Apply the mixture to your face like a mask and let dry. Rinse your face after 20 minutes. For a sunburn elsewhere on your body, multiple the ingredients by 4.
• Dr. John Reed at WholeHealthMD.com recommends, among other things, a cool bath with 10 drops of lavender essential oil and 10 drops of chamomile essential oil.

Of course, an ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure. Or a stitch in time saves nine. Take your pick. Check out these great ways to prevent a burn in the future:

• Kiss My Face Oat Protein Sunscreen (30 SPF) contains no animal ingredients, no artificial colors, and was not tested on animals. It contains natural ingredients to help counteract the effects of sun damage while protecting your skin from further UV exposure. Also check out Smart Shield which contains no harsh chemicals and is not petroleum based, so it won’t clog your pores or stain your clothes.
• Ann Taylor Loft has a very cute straw hat (for less than $10!) to help protect your face without sacrificing on style. Also check out this post at Eco-Salon about sustainably produced sun hats.
• Outdora has a great outdoor umbrella specially designed for those of us with small outdoor spaces. Their half-canopy umbrella sits flush against a wall, saving space while still providing respite from the sun.

Succulents are all the rage right now and for good reason. They’re good looking, drought tolerant, and many are easy to grow. Designing a pot featuring succulents is no different than designing a pot with “regular” plants; you still need thrillers, fillers, and spillers.

You do need to take into consideration a few special points in the actual planting process though. Succulents like good drainage, now is not the time to use a pot without a drainage hole. You’ll also want to use a fast draining soil, preferably one designed for cacti and succulents. I have started using my own mixture of two parts soil-less potting mix to one part sand.

Finally, be sure to take into consideration the amount of light your balcony gets. I have a couple of Echeveria and an Aloe that do not like full sun conditions. Not all succulents are sun lovers. I found this out the hard way when the sun scortched burn marks on their leaves and killed some of my other succulents. If I had just read the plant tags more closely…

Here are a couple of my succulent containers:

This pot features my current favorite succulent, Kalanchoe “Flapjacks,” there in the back. He’s the guy with the red tinged upright leaves. To his left is a Sempervivum arachnoideum (“Hens and Chicks”), aptly named “Spiderweb.” To the right of the Kalanchoe is “Burros Tail,” one of the first plants I ever owned, a cutting from my grandma’s garden. In the front, a sedum spilling over the edge of the pot.

What I tried to do here is what I try to do with every container I plant: find a thriller (the Kalanchoe), compliment it with some fillers (in this case, the Sempervivum and the Burros Tail) and then finish it off with an appropriate spiller (the Sedum). I’m not always as successful as I think (hope?) I was here. But ever since reading about the thriller, filler, spiller idea I’ve had a lot more success with creating nice looking containers.

This is another container (same pot from Ikea to help create a cohesive display) with a an unknown (the pot was mislabeled) dusty rose colored succulent and an unknown variety of aeonium serving as the thrillers in the back. To the right is another one of my favorite succulents, Anacampseros telephiastrum “sunrise,” which has yellow leaves tinged with magenta (filler). In front of the Anacampseros is another Sempervivum (filler). In the front, left side of the pot is a different variety of Sedum (spiller). Finally, on the left side of the pot is a Mammillaria cactus (filler).

I admit that in this pot I was trying to use up some random succulents I had around, but I did try and use plants that were blue-green or pink so that the container didn’t look too haphazard.

Jim McCausland over at Fresh Dirt has a great tip for determining which area (if any) of your balcony or patio will be sunny during the fall and winter:

Thursday evening, set your alarm for 1 a.m. (If this plan won’t fly with your spouse, drink a couple of glasses of water before you go to bed, and you’ll be up at the appropriate time.) Go outside when the alarm goes off, and you’ll find the full moon floating in almost exactly the same spot the sun will occupy five months from now. Whatever beds get moonlight now will get sunlight then. Whatever beds are shaded by buildings and evergreen trees now will be shaded by the same things in December.

…

The difference between the sun’s summer and winter tracks is sharp. Today in Seattle, the midday sun is 64° above the horizon. In  late December, it will be only 19° above the horizon. In Los Angeles today, the midday sun is 77° above the horizon, while in December, it will be 33° above the horizon. The difference is what causes such long winter shadows.

This is important advice, because as Jim notes, now is the time to plant fall and winter vegetable seeds, but obviously those plants will need sunshine a few months from now to do their best.

Last week, I posted about one common problem small space gardeners face: finding gorgeous plants for a shady container garden. But equally as difficult to deal with is a garden that is scortched by the sun. On a balcony that only receives a moderate amount of sun, containers can dry out quickly. This problem is multipled in a space that gets a lot of sun. In such gardens, it’s probably best to pick plants that prefer dry, sunny conditions. Or if you just can’t live without a water lover, pick large pots and plant them densly. Large pots tend to dry out less frequently than small pots, and a lack of exposed soil seems to also help keep moisture in the pot.

Many vegetables and herbs enjoy lots of sun. And there is always cacti, pretty much all of them like tons of sun and dry conditions. Succulents are also really popular these days, although be careful when selecting succulents because not all of them do well in full-sun. Try to stay away from metal containers because they can get really hot in the sun and toast your plants’ roots.

Try potting these plants together, they all prefer good drainage, light watering and full sun. And they are all pretty hardy:

• Karl Foerster Feather Reed Grass (A) – Has upright, bright green leaves and wheat colored flowers. Plant it towards the back so it can serve as a backdrop to the other plants.
• Lavender Cotton (B) – I’m not really sure why this plant is called “Lavender Cotton” as there really isn’t anything purple about it. Anyway, this plant loves sun and prefers dry, sandy, poor soil. It has silvery, feathery foliage and bright orange pom-pom flowers. Plant it in the middle-back of the pot, in front of the feather reed grass. Hardy to zone 5.
• Yarrow “Moonshine” (C) – Has four inch flower clusters with yellow flowers that appear in June and will keep on flowering until September if you dead head. Bonus: it has nice silver-green foliage. Plant it on the other side of the Lantana near the front.
• Lantana “Lucious Citrus Blend” (D) – This plant is covered in clusters of multi-colored orange/red/yellow flowers and has a backdrop of dark green leaves. Lantana has the added benefit of attracting butterflies. Plant it very close to the front and to one side, and encourage it to spill over the side of the container. Note: lantana leaves can be poisonous to pets.

Other great full-sun, low-water plants: Echinecia purpurea “Fatal Attraction”, Russian Sage, Persian Shield, and Creeping Jenny “Goldilocks.” Also, check out this plan from Better Homes & Gardens for a full sun, high humidity container featuring an really beautiful Canna.