Spring has sprung my balcony/patio/porch gardening friends! It may not seem like it in your area–all of a sudden it’s gotten cold and rainy in my neck of the woods–but the first day of Spring was yesterday, March 20th. This is all well and good, but for most of the U.S., your last frost date probably won’t be until mid to late April, or even mid May! At first that sounds depressing, but what it really means is that you have lots of time to start some seeds, and get caught up on your garden reading!

Failing to Plan is Planning to Fail

1. Ten Questions to Ask Yourself When Planning Your Garden - If you want to have a happy, healthy container garden that doesn’t leave you penniless, consider these questions.
2. Selecting the Perfect Pots for Your Container Garden - Things to think about when it comes to pot materials, color and matching plants to pots.
3. Five Sneaky Tips to Create a Smokin’ Hot Container Garden - Behind the scenes ways to improve how your balcony garden looks or functions.
4. Using a Color Wheel to Create a Stunning Balcony Garden - An easy way to pick flower, leaf and pot colors that are guaranteed to look great together.

Grow Cool Stuff on Your Balcony

1. How to Grow Day Lilies in a Container - I admit that I am a total daylily novice, so I turned to Hugh Stout, an iris and daylily hybridizer and grower, the American Hemerocallis Society, and several university extensions to find out.
2. Combine Edibles and Ornamentals in One Pot – There’s no need to choose between plants you can eat and plants that are pretty. Artfully combine them!
3. Tomatoes That Are Easy to Grow 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…
4. How to Grow Nasturtiums - I’ve been busy researching nasturtiums, and wanted to share what I’ve learned, and my own previous experience, in case you want to grow some nasturtiums too.

Do More With Less

1. How to Grow More Food in a Small Amount of Space - If your number one goal is to grow as many fruits, vegetables, and herbs as possible, then read on. These ideas aren’t pretty, but they will maximize your use of your space.
2. Five Creative Container Ideas That Won’t Break The Bank – There are some pretty fun containers just waiting for your plants, and the good news is that they aren’t prohibitively expensive.
3. Stylish DIY Container Painting Project - Being on a budget doesn’t have to mean using ugly containers. If you’re willing to put a little elbow grease into converting a cheap plastic pot into something unique and stylish, then you can have nice looking pots for less than $20.
4. Ten Dirt Cheap Ways to Have a Beautiful Balcony Garden - Gardening can be expensive if you don’t keep an eye on the bottom line. Even gardening in a small space can get out of hand. Here are some tips to keep the spending to a minimum without sacrificing style.

Hear ye, hear ye! Community Container Garden day is finally here! Without further ado, may I present the plants we will be growing this year: ‘Sunspot’ Sunflowers, ‘Purple Petra’ Basil, Garlic Chives, ‘Spacemaster’ Cucumber, and ‘Better Bush’ Tomato. And if growing plants from seed wasn’t cheap enough for you, I’ve arranged with aHa Modern Living to sell the Life on the Balcony Community Container Garden seeds to you at 10% off. Not just the seeds, but whatever you order from aHa Modern Living with this discount code: LOTBseeds.

Full disclosure: I get nothing but the satisfaction that you saved some money if you buy your seeds from aHa Modern Living.

Here’s the deal. You don’t have to grow these five plants. There is no garden police officer that is going to come knocking on your door to check your container garden. BUT, I thought it would be so much FUN if we all could compare notes about the same plants throughout the season. I have lots of posts planned with container ideas, combination suggestions, growing tips, and of course, recipes! I really hope you’ll join in. To kick things off, I shared a guest post over on the aHa Modern Living blog with tips for seed starting success, as well as one idea for growing all five plants in a single planter box.

By the way, to make chatting about growing these plants easier, I’ve created a message board for us all to use. I hope you guys will jump on over and get the edible garden conversation started. I’m still tweaking things over there, so be on the lookout for a prettier version of the message board soon.

Let the seed sowing begin!!!

This being Earth Day, I wanted to challenge you to do one thing–make one change–to be more environmentally friendly. Maybe you’re going to commit to not use any pesticides this year, or grow some Asclepias (milkweed) to support your local butterfly population. Sunset Magazine has a whole bunch of Earth-friendly ideas. If you do make an Earth Day resolution, tell me about it in the comments. Maybe we can help keep each other on track.

Spring has sprung! If you’re looking for some good container gardening reading on a lazy Sunday, look no farther than this collection of posts…

PLANNING

• 10 Questions to Ask Yourself When Planning Your Garden: If you want to have a happy, healthy container garden that doesn’t leave you penniless, consider these questions.
• Selecting the Perfect Pots for Your Container Garden: Things to think about when it comes to pot materials, color and matching plants to pots.
• 5 Sneaky Tips to Create a Smokin’ Hot Container Garden: Behind the scenes ways to improve how your balcony garden looks or functions.
• Using a Color Wheel to Create a Stunning Balcony Garden: An easy way to pick flower, leaf and pot colors that are guaranteed to look great together.

CONTAINER IDEAS

• A Container Recipe for Bright Shade: An easy 1-2-3 plan for a pot that will be placed in the shade.
• Plant Combination Ideas for Beautiful Container Gardens: Included are plans for a hummingbird garden, apple “orchard,” drought tolerant container and more!
• Calendula & Bacopa Windowbox: Check out this cheery windowbox idea.
• Rose Container Recipes: Two detailed ideas for using roses in a container design and several more ideas to help you incorporate roses into your balcony garden.
• More Plant Combinations: You can never have too many ideas when it comes to which plants look good together!

EDIBLE CONTAINER GARDENING

• Keep Your Mind Out of the Gutter: But it’s okay to garden in one! Check out the plants you can grow in a rain gutter.
• 3 Great Ways to Grow More Vegetables on Your Balcony: A few ideas to make your balcony as efficient as possible.
• Tasty Flowers and How to Eat Them: A good way to kill two birds with one stone is to grow edible flowers. You get to grow pretty flowers and something you can eat all in one plant.
• Easy to Grow Fruits, Vegetables and Herbs: A list of great edible plants with links to information on how to grow them organically.
• Grow Your Own Food So Your Kids Will Eat Healthily: Tips for getting kids involved in growing food in order to entice them into eating the veggies they grow.

BIRDS, BEES AND BUTTERFLIES

• Welcoming Wildlife to Your Balcony: A great book about creating backyard and balcony habitats for wildlife.
• Bees Favorite Colors Are Blue and Yellow: Three things to look for in a flower if you’re trying to attract bees.
• Grow Your Own Bird Feeder: This is a great guest post from Janet Luke about growing birdhouse gourds on your balcony.
• DIY Modern Bird Feeder: My brother figured out how to recreate this designer bird feeder.

Subscribe to Life on the Balcony and never miss a single container gardening tip or trick.

Photo by Daryl Mitchell

I alluded to how much I am in love with lemon zest petunias yesterday, so allow me to show you why I like them so much…

Aren’t these just…tasty?! They spill over the sides of pots very nicely, and man-o-man are their yellow and white flowers show stoppers! I paid $5.98 for a petunia, and I’m not afraid to admit it!

This is a view of the completed pot, although I feel like the shot doesn’t do the pot justice (I really should fire my photographer!). I used a metal bucket from the hardware store and filled it with the lemon zest petunias, molimba helio double pink, and bluebird nemesia.

Here’s how to create something similar:

Gather up everything you’ll need, including a metal bucket, the three plants, potting soil, a hammer, and either an awl or a large nail.

Make several holes (I made five) in the bottom of the bucket, using the hammer and awl (or nail).

Fill the pot with some potting soil and then add in the largest plant (in this case, it’s the petunia). You want the petunia’s soil line to be about an inch below the lip of the bucket.

Add in more potting soil and place the two smaller plants around the petunia. Then fill in with more dirt so that there are no spaces left in between the plants and the soil line in level throughout the pot.

To quote a radio commercial: Easy peasy lemon squeezy.

I made two of these up for clients to give as gifts for Mother’s Day. I have some extra supplies, so if anyone out there in Southern California would like an unique gift, shoot me an email. I deliver!

If my site logs are on to anything, gardeners are REALLY interested in growing edibles in containers. So here goes nothing. Bear with me on the graphics, I’m having some technical issues behind the scenes. But hopefully they’ll get my ideas across.

Rosemary, Meet My Friend Strawberry

A super easy combo is to plant up a strawberry pot with strawberries in the lower half and rosemary in the top. Start by filling the pot with enough dirt to reach the lowest hole in the pot. Insert the first strawberry transplant and then fill the pot with enough dirt to reach the next hole, and repeat.  When you’ve planted the last strawberry, add enough dirt so that the rosemary’s roots will be about 2 inches below the lip of the pot. Place the rosemary in the pot, fill around it with dirt, and voila! You’re done.

When the strawberries are ready to be picked, consider this strawberry and rosemary jam recipe (scroll down to the bottom to see how she tweaked the recipe to include rosemary). If you want extra credit, train your rosemary into a topiary.

Eat Your Beets and Carrots

A really attractive combo of root vegetables is carrots and beets. The finely cut foliage of the carrots contrasts nicely with the bold, dark foliage of beets. I like planting beets in the back of the pot, and then a short variety of carrots in front. As the beet leaves are also edible, you’d be hard pressed to plant a more efficient pot.

More Good Veggie Combos

• Tomatoes and marigolds – Probably the classic vegetable companion combination. Marigolds fight off some of the pests that attack tomato roots.
• Lettuce and Radishes – Ring a pot of lettuce with radishes and you’ll have an attractive salad in the pot and on the plate.
• Mint and Broccoli – Broccoli is actually a pretty attractive plant. Mint will spread around the base of the broccoli, covering the dirt.
• Swiss Chard and Cabbage – The striking white and green of the chard contrasts nicely in both shape and color with the cabbage.

Spring has sprung! The first official day of Spring was last Friday. Below I’ve put together tons of posts to help you plan and care for your container garden. Be sure to bookmark this post for future reference!

Photo by Steve Took It

PLANNING

• How to Plan a Beautiful Balcony Garden: Some ideas and resources to help you plan your balcony garden without giving yourself a headache in the process.
• Selecting the Perfect Pots for Your Container Garden: Things to think about when it comes to pot materials, color and matching plants to pots.
• Using a Color Wheel to Create a Stunning Balcony Garden: An easy way to pick flower, leaf and pot colors that are guaranteed to look great together.
• Strategies for Dealing with a Windy Balcony: Don’t be dissuaded from gardening in the sky! While not every plant is suitable to being batted around by the wind, there are things you can do to help your plants cope.

CONTAINER IDEAS

• Made in the Shade – A Container Recipe for Bright Shade: An easy 1-2-3 plan for a pot that will be placed in the shade.
• Plant Combination Ideas for Beautiful Container Gardens: Included are plans for a hummingbird garden, apple “orchard,” drought tolerant container and more!
• Anyone Can Grow Irises in a Container: An easy to follow guide to growing irises in containers.
• Rose Container Recipes: Two detailed ideas for using roses in a container design and several more ideas to help you incorporate roses into your balcony garden.
• Herbal Tea Garden: Grow your own herbal tea. Super easy, yet still pretty.
• More Plant Combinations: You can never have too many ideas when it comes to which plants look good together!

EDIBLE CONTAINER GARDENING

• Tasty Flowers and How to Eat Them: A good way to kill two birds with one stone is to grow edible flowers. You get to grow pretty flowers and something you can eat all in one plant.
• Easy to Grow Fruits, Vegetables and Herbs: A list of great edible plants with links to information on how to grow them organically.
• Grow Your Own Herbal Tea: A handy guide to plants that can be grown in containers and make great tea infusions.
• Grow Your Own Food So Your Kids Will Eat Healthily: Tips for getting kids involved in growing food in order to entice them into eating the veggies they grow.
• Vegetable and Herb Companion Planting: Planting two different types of plants next to each other is often has great side effects!
• Natural Mosquito Repellent: Find out which herb you can plant on your balcony to keep it mosquito free!
• How to Care for a Container Grown Apple Tree: Everything you ever wanted to know about growing an apple in a pot!

BIRDS, BEES AND BUTTERFLIES

• Banish Hum-Drum Hummingbird Feeders: A great collection of hummingbird feeders that are beautiful as well as functional.
• Easy Ways to Attract Butterflies To Your Garden: A container recipe sure to attract butterflies and other tips on attracting butterflies to your balcony garden.
• Attracting Bees to Your Urban Garden: A comprehensive resource to attract one of the most important pollinators to your container garden.
• iPhone Bird Guide App: Check out this great application for your iPhone that will help you identify the birds visiting your balcony.

If you thought these ideas were helpful, wait until you see what I have planned for the upcoming weeks. Subscribe to Life on the Balcony and never miss a single tip or trick.

Herbal teas are refreshing. They can alleviate a number of maladies. And they are really easy to grow and brew. Here’s a simple plan to grow your own herbs for a great tasting, tummy soothing tea. The best part is that these plants are so easy to grow, everyone except the blackest of thumbs should be able to handle them.

From back to front: Lemon Verbena, Chamomile, and Peppermint

The plan for this container design couldn’t be easier. You need three pots. One 12, one 10, and one 8 inch pot. You also need three plants, lemon verbena, chamomile, and spearmint. Even people like me, who aren’t very good at math, can figure out that all that’s left to do is pot up one plant in each container.

You can grow chamomile and spearmint easily from seed or use transplants if you wish. Lemon verbena is really hard to grow from seed, it’s best to save yourself the headache and buy a transplant.

Give them full sun (at least six hours of direct sunlight). Water the peppermint and lemon verbena whenever the top inch of soil is dry, let the chamomile totally dry out between watering.

To harvest for use in an herbal tea, snip off some leaves from the spearmint and verbena plants and the flowers from the chamomile. Dry them on a clean screen, or hang them to dry. When they’re totally dry, store the herbs in a clean, dry jar with a air tight lid.

Lemony Chamomile-Spearmint Tea

• 1 teaspoon dried chamomile
• 1/2 teaspoon dried lemon verbena
• 1/2 teaspoon spearmint
• 1 teaspoon honey, optional

Place all herbs in a tea ball and steep in a cup of hot water for 5-7 minutes. Remove the tea ball and sweeten tea with honey, if desired.

Check out this cute tea ball with convenient silicone drip tray, if you’re in need of a new one (or your first!).

At the moment, everyone in the gardening world seems to be talking about planning your garden for Spring. But sometimes gardening can be overwhelming. It’s great that there are so many choices out there, but that also means that it requires more work to pick a pots, plants, dirt, fertilizer, etc. Below I’ve tried to put together some ideas and resources that will help you start to plan your balcony garden without giving yourself a headache in the process.

Photo by marite2007

Containers

One thing that you can start working on right away is deciding what to plant your garden in. Do you already have pots from last you that you want to reuse? Great! Make sure they’re clean and ready to go. While you’re at it, take a second to measure the pots and write down their height and diameter.

If you already have pots, but for whatever reason you don’t like them, consider painting them. If the posts are mismatched, painting them all the same color would really help unify them. Or, you might consider a number of color schemes. Whether you’re going for a monochrome or multi-color theme, check out this post I wrote about using a color wheel to choose a color theme for your garden.

If you need new pots, watch this space. On Thursday I plan on publishing a post that covers that topic in more detail than I have space for here.

Failing to Plan is Planning to Fail

One way to help yourself sort through all the options when you get to the garden center is to have a rough list of plants you want to buy before you arrive. To do this, I don’t think you need to go nuts creating an architectural drawing of your dream garden, but spending a few minutes measuring your space (including the height if your balcony or patio has a roof) and sketching out pot placement is definitely worth it.

Once you have a rough idea of where you want to place your containers, you can start thinking about what kind of plants you want to put in your pots. In my experience/opinion the easiest and best looking way to do things is to have a combination of multi-plant pots and single-plant pots. In the pots that you plan to make into multi-plant pots, I suggest using three plants: one thriller, one spiller, and one filler.

Of course, take note of how many perennials you already have and the seeds you’ve started indoors. Give a few seconds thought to how they fit into your plan. Will they be fillers in one of your multi-plant pots or a singleton in a pot all their own? Don’t forget the edible plants you want to grow. Just because your garden will include such plants doesn’t mean that it has to look utilitarian. I still employ the thriller, spiller, filler method for my edible planters.

Take Your Time

Your garden center isn’t likely to have anything worth buying for a couple of more months. Enjoy this time! Look through magazines, blogs, and catalogues for ideas. If you give yourself enough time to plan, you won’t feel rushed, and you might even enjoy the process. I highly recommend subscribing to this blog and other gardening websites you enjoy visiting. I plan on posting tons of container ideas in the coming months as I am sure most gardening sites are planning to do as well.

To get you started, I thought I’d point you in the direction of these Fine Gardening magazine articles I’ve found particularly helpful:

• Stylish Shady Containers
• Designing Container Groupings
• Think Outside the Windowbox

Make a List of What You Need

If you do the above, you should be able to make a list of the number and type of thrillers, spillers, fillers, and single plants you’ll need. Having a rough plan of attack when you enter the garden center is, from my experience, approximately 25,839,205 times easier than walking through the rows of plants and trying to decide what to buy on the spot. Not to mention that I bet you’ll end up spending less because you’ll only buy the plants you need.

Good luck and stay tuned for more container gardening advice and ideas!