I’m so excited to show you this video, it features one of the balconies that will also be in my book. There are several great ideas for making the most out of a small space. Enjoy!

In the video, you’ll see a Woolly Pocket in action, they’re a great way to take advantage of your vertical space. I also used pot clips to attach the succulent pots to the trellis. The window boxes on the balcony railing are from Lechuza.

You see that search box over there, near the top of the sidebar on the right? You all have used that little box to find information on Life on the Balcony 4,505 times. That’s a lot of searching! Here’s what you’ve been searching for, and posts that are a good match…

The top thing on your mind happens to be my favorite color of plants. 148 people have searched for Black Plants!

• Awesome Black Plants for High Impact Containers – I came up with these plants that are easy to grow in a container and feature black leaves or flowers. To be clear, “black” when it comes to plants usually means very dark purple or red, sometimes a very dark chocolate.
• Review of ‘Black Plants: 75 Striking Choices for the Garden’ by Paul Bonine – When I heard about Paul Bonine’s Black Plants: 75 Striking Choices for the Garden I was very excited. I love black plants.
• A Simple, Yet High Impact Container – I am so excited by this combo. Since I grew so many ‘Spitfire’ Nasturtiums for the GROW Project, I’ve decided to incorporate the fiery red-orange of the flowers into my overall scheme this year. I’m going to for black, red, and yellow balcony.

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The second thing on your mind is everyone’s favorite fruit/vegetable: Tomatoes. You all searched for them 93 times! Quite frankly, I think I failed you guys in the tomato department. I have written about them, but not nearly enough to quench your thirst for tomato knowledge, I’m afraid. I’ll do better next year!

• What Type of Tomatoes Do Well In a Container? – In my always humble opinion, I think you should look for three things in a tomato if you’re a beginning gardener looking to grow some red deliciousness on your balcony or patio
• Tomato Chutney Recipe – If you’re still swimming in tomatoes, you might really like this recipe. I made it last weekend and served it atop friend polenta rounds. It was delicious!

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Another popular topic seems to be Strawberries. 59 people searched for this delectable berry. I think this is another topic I’ve not fully covered, and will write more about in 2011.

• Create a Hanging Salad Bowl – How to create a hanging basket with everything growing in it that you need to make a strawberry and spinach salad.
• 5 Beginner Crops to Try, Even if You’re Not a Good Cook – A list focused on easy to grow fruits and vegetables that you can eat raw, so no cooking required!

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57 people searched for info on Balcony Privacy. Sorry that privacy is a problem, here are a few posts to help!

• 5 Plants That Will Help You Regain Your Privacy – Inconsiderate neighbors may use their balcony as a place to store their junk, or you may have a great view into the apartments in the next building over. Whatever the case, you may want to create a little privacy on your balcony, and I know of five plants that would do a great job helping you do that.
• How to Grow Your Own Privacy Screen – When planning on making a privacy screen on your balcony, you have four things to consider: The amount of light your balcony gets, the amount of headroom your balcony has, planter boxes, and the evergreen plants that will work in the first two situations.
• Creating Privacy on Your Balcony, Part One and Part Two – Who wants to look at the junk on their neighbor’s balcony? I certainly don’t. As I see it, you have two options: screen the eyesore out with a physical object or screen them out with plants.

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Lots of people love their Compost, as 31 of you searched for it. If any of you have experience with vermicomposting, shoot me an email. I’d love to feature a guest post on the topic.

• Composting on the Balcony – Some people believe composting is a messy, smelly job not suitable for balcony gardeners. In truth, it’s no messier than regular gardening and the smell is easily contained.
• Different Perspectives on Fertilizing – I recently Tweeted about fertilizing container gardens and asked for feedback about what other gardeners do. I received many different responses.

What are you searching for? Maybe I can help!

I’ve written a lot about privacy, in part because when you literally share walls, ceilings, and floors with other people, you become obsessed. At least I am. In the past I’ve written about reducing noise pollution, using physical objects to create privacy, and a DIY screen of small wooden planter boxes. Today though, I though I would talk about how to make the simplest privacy screen of them all: large planter boxes with bushy plants.

When planning on making a privacy screen on your balcony, you have four things to consider: The amount of light your balcony gets, the amount of headroom your balcony has, planter boxes, and the evergreen plants that will work in the first two situations.

Assessing The Amount of Sun on Your Balcony

As with any new plant you consider bringing on your balcony, you have to consider the amount of light your balcony actually gets. A lot of times people are interestes in creating a privacy screen on their balcony because the building that faces your balcony is thisclose. Well, those situations are often part-shade or full-shade, so make sure you pick a plant that likes the kind of sun you’ve got.

Considering Your Balcony’s Height

Another thing to consider is the height of your balcony. Many times, you’re upstairs neighbor’s balcony is directly overhead. It might feel claustrophobic if you pick a plant that will grow to touch the ceiling of your balcony. Remember that you’ll be planting your privacy screen in a container that is probably about 18 inches off the ground to begin with, so don’t forget to add that number on to the mature height of your plant to determine how tall it will actually be.

Planter Boxes

When it comes to creating a privacy screen, I think you’ll be happier with planter boxes. They will help create a uniform look, and can provide more growing room for your shrubs without adding ridiculous amounts of extra weight to your balcony. Plus, they’re frost hardy. I recommend either buying planter boxes with wheels, or adding them, so that you can periodically rotate your boxes and help your plants get even amounts of light.

Great Privacy Screen Plants:

• Podocarpus - I really love Podocarpus, so long as it isn’t sheared into some sort of horrible shape. Leave them alone! They form such nice, airy, well-behaved shrubs. A particularly beautiful variety is Icee Blue Yellow-Wood (Podocarpus elongatus ‘Monmal’), that has blue-silver leaves.
• Holly – If year-round interest is important to you, or attracting wildlife, then Hollies are a great bet. There are many attractive varieties with variegated leaves, and they have red berries in the winter for your feathered balcony guests.
• Bamboo – Some bamboos have gotten a bad name because they can take over through spreading rhizomes. But that’s not really a worry for us container gardeners. Pleioblastus chino vaginatus variegatus is a beautiful option with variegated leaves that will grow to about 6 feet. Sasa palmata is a great option for cooler climates or balconies without much sun; it grows to about 6 feet.
• Gardenia – In a small space, I demand that plants serve more than one purpose, and Gardenias are definitely up to the task. They have dark green, glossy leaves, and are easily maintained as privacy hedges. But they also have glorious flowers that smell divine. I saw Monrovia’s Everblooming Gardenia at the Garden Writers Symposium. It wasn’t in bloom at the time, but supposedly it has huge flowers and will bloom from Spring to Summer.

Have you ever created a living privacy screen? Share your tips and nosy-neighbor horror stories in the comments!

Living in an apartment or condo means living really close to other people. I’ve been rudely reminded of that lately, as my upstairs neighbor has decided to rearrange their furniture late at night. But the closeness can also be felt outside, on your balcony or patio too. Inconsiderate neighbors may use their balcony as a place to store their junk, or you may have a great view into the apartments in the next building over. Whatever the case, you may want to create a little privacy on your balcony, and I know of five plants that would do a great job helping you do that.

Blueberries

Photo by Martin LaBar

Blueberries are a great plant to grow in pots. In many parts of the country, it’s pretty much the only way. Like in Southern California, where our soil is too alkaline to grow them in the ground. But in a pot, it’s easy to provide them with the acidic soil they love. And “high bush” varieties can grow to be 5-6 feet tall. This means that you can create a privacy hedge that is beautiful and produces delicious fruit. Trifecta! More about blueberries here.

Ornamental Millet

I keep on seeing this plant in Target’s garden section (though you can also easily grow millet from seed). More on Target’s garden center tomorrow, but ornamental millet grows to be about 5 feet tall and produces nice bushy plants that are perfect for blocking out neighbors. It won the All-America Selection gold medal, which is hard to do, though not surprising for a plant that is beautiful yet nearly impossible to kill. Oh yeah, and they leaves are such a dark purple, they look black. What’s not to love?

Hollyhocks

Photo by Per Ola Wiberg

Hollyhocks are usually listed as a biennial, which means that you plant them one year, it grows leaves and roots, and then flowers the following year. However, many of them can be grown as an annual (flower the year they’re planted) if you start them early indoors. Being the black plant lover that I am, I recommend ‘Watchman’ which will send up 6 foot tall deep burgandy flower spikes.

Sunflowers

Photo by Esdras Calderan

There are some sunflowers that will grow to 14 feet tall. If you can’t block out your neighbors with 14 feet of of sunflowery goodness, then you should probably just move. Sunflowers are another double-duty plant. If you grow a variety that produces yummy seeds, you can either eat them or let your feathery friends have them. Either way, bees will definitely appreciate all the pollen.

Foxglove

Photo by FatMandy

If you have a shady balcony, then foxgloves are your friend. They come in all sorts of colors and can grow to 5 feet tall. Put them in a 2 foot tall pot and you have a stunning flower curtain that you and bees will love. Here’s a container recipe featuring foxgloves.

Related Posts

• Creating Privacy On Your Balcony, Part 1
• Creating Privacy On Your Balcony, Part 2

Apartment/condo living means living thisclose to your neighbor. It often means hearing all sorts of things from your neighbor’s unit that you’d rather not hear. And often times, living in a high density area means listening to all sorts of other noises from streets, trains, planes, jack hammers, and on and on. In addition to your neighbor’s noises, you probably would like to have a conversation with the windows open or out on your balcony, and it would be nice if your neighbors didn’t hear every detail.

Especially outside, there are things you can do to reduce the noise. Or at least make it more bearable. Tobin Cooley, the founder of Listen Acoustics suggests using two or three white noise sources at a low volume level “to create a neutral sound environment.” Things like water fountains, wind chimes, radios, or even a white noise machine can be used to neutralize unappealing noises.

With the can’t-beat-em-join-em philosophy of noise reduction in mind, I thought these wind chimes from Ten Thousand Villages would look great on a balcony or patio. And you have the added benefit of supporting a fair trade organization that supports artisans in the developing world.

• Tranquility Wind Chime
• Capiz Circle Wind Chime
• Bamboo and Ceramic Wind Chime

Do you have any special noise reduction tips?

I saw these at Roger’s Gardens. I love that place! Wouldn’t these be a great way to make a bare wall more interesting? Or, if you spaced the pots more closely together, and used plants that spilled over the side more, you could use this sort of thing as a privacy screen.

From what I could tell, the top pot is hanging from the patio cover, then a hook is bolted in to the drainage hole, and the pot beneath it is hanging from that hook, etc.

I showed this picture to a client who has some bare cinder block walls. I think we are going to do something similar, although she has more modern tastes, and wants to use some pots that are white, some that are yellow, some blue and some red.

Related Posts

• Container Inspiration from Roger’s Gardens
• How to Create a Hanging Basket
• Tropical Container Garden Ideas

While trying to find a shortcut out of a shopping center, I saw this trellis and thought it would be perfect for those of us who garden on balconies or patios.

From what I can tell, the trellis was made with some careful measuring, a few eye hooks and a whole lot of fine guage wire. Here’s what I would do if I was recreating this trellis

1. Carefully measure out a grid of 12 inch squares. Make a mark at the corner of each square.
2. Drill a hole at each mark. Insert a wall anchor into the hole and then screw in the eye hook.
3. Feed the wire through the eye hooks to recreate the pattern above. Secure the ends by twisting them back on themselves.
4. Place a planter box in front of the trellis and plant it with several vines and train them to grow around the wires. Choose a vine that stays relatively airy-looking so that you will still be able to see the grid pattern when the vine matures (so Morning Glory and other dense, matting vines would be poor choices). Something like Cardinal Climber would be a good choice.

You could also use this trellis as a privacy screen by screwing in the eye hooks to the top of your balcony and to the railing and then feeding the wire between the two. When the vine matures and grows up the wires, it will obscure the view. Proceed with caution if you think you might get into trouble for making holes in the railing.

Other Posts About Creating Privacy on Your Balcony:

• How to Screen out Your Neighbors With Trellises, Fountains, Umbrellas and Other Physical Objects
• Using Plants to Create a Hidden Garden…and Help Hide From Your Neighbors

Check out this Laguna Beach homeowner’s DIY privacy screen, made with wooden pots from Ikea. It could easily be adapted for a balcony or patio. The homeowner is growing herbs and perrenials in the pots. The screen has a neat Japanese/modern feel to it.

Related Posts:

• Creating Privacy on Your Balcony, Part 1
• Creating Privacy on Your Balcony, Part 2

Last week, I wrote a post about screening out unwanted views or unsightly neighboring balconies:

Let’s face it, one of the worst parts of living in an urban area is that you probably live near at least one person who thinks it’s perfectly acceptable to leave a sofa out on their balcony. Or if they don’t have a sofa out there, their idea of great outdoor living is sitting in white plastic chairs smoking incessantly and talking loudly with their friends. Who wants that view? I certainly don’t. As I see it, you have two options: screen the eyesore out with a physical object or screen them out with plants.

That post was about using physical objects as a screen, but I also promised that I would write about using plants to screen out neighbors, which is what I intend to do here. To block out your neighbors or an unsightly view, you could…

• Buy the hanging garden planters pictured above. They’re on sale. Or, if you’re handy, you could make your own. Plant with tall-ish bushy annuals or trailing vines, like Ivy.
• You could create a similar effect with less sweat equity by hanging a bunch of pots at different heights and planting them with a variety of bushy and trailing plants. If you have a shady balcony, Fuchsias would look stunning with this kind of set up.
• Plant a long, narrow planter box with bamboo. There are a number of really stunning bamboo. For example, check out this black stemmed variety Eric planted. Place the planter box along the side of your balcony or patio where you’d like more privacy.
• Place a trellis in the location where you want to block the view. In front of it, plant a pretty vine. One idea to try is Black Eyed Susan Vine in the spring and summer and Sweet Peas in the fall and winter. Both with thrive in full sun to partial shade.
• In the comments section of this post, Jane suggests the Chamaedorea Palm as a good plant for shady balconies. I took a look, and I bet a couple of these palms, with their large fronds, would block out a good bit. You could combine them with hanging tropical plants or Ferns to create a lush screen of plants.

I’d love to hear your ideas on this topic. Which plants have you used to add privacy to your small outdoor space?

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Let’s face it, one of the worst parts of living in an urban area is that you probably live near at least one person who thinks it’s perfectly acceptable to leave a sofa out on their balcony. Or if they don’t have a sofa out there, their idea of great outdoor living is sitting in white plastic chairs smoking incessantly and talking loudly with their friends. Who wants that view? I certainly don’t. As I see it, you have two options: screen the eyesore out with a physical object or screen them out with plants. In this post I’m going to cover physical objects, and in a future post, I’ll discuss using plants.

Photo by Mr. Laskowski

I’m lucky to have really great neighbors at my current apartment, but I’ve lived at places where I’ve seen and heard really bizarre things on nearby balconies. If you’re living near the neighbors-from-hell, I feel your pain. Here are some tips and ideas to add privacy to your balcony or deck.

• Umbrella: If the neighbors you want to disappear live above you, or you want to screen out prying eyes coming from an upstairs window, umbrellas work really well. They give you a shady spot to relax, they block out an unsightly view above, and they don’t look like you’re trying to block out the neighbors. There are umbrellas that are smaller than the typical umbrella which work well on balconies. Also, there are “half” umbrellas that sit flush with a wall.
• Pergola: Related to the idea above, if you live in a condo and are permitted to put in a pergola, they also work well for screening out views you’d rather not have.
• Water Fountain: If the problem you face is not necessarily that a neighboring balcony is unsightly, but rather that your neighbors sit out on their balcony and talk into all hours of the night, adding a fountain on your balcony may help to neutralize their noise and replace it with something more soothing.
• Screen: Another option is to use a screen of some sort. Pier One Imports has a couple of good looking options: Indoor Outdoor Wall Panel, Capiz Shell Sun Catcher.
• Curtains: A pretty piece of fabric gently blowing in the breeze could be a beautiful option during the time of year you don’t get much rain. Use a curtain rod or string a taught wire between two posts an either hang a pre-made curtain or sew your own.

Did you like this post? Check out the follow-up post about using plants to block out your neighbors. Also, please subscribe to Life on the Balcony and never miss great tips and ideas for balcony gardeners.