If you live in a downtown area, or on a high floor, your balcony may be pretty windy. In urban areas, wind is funneled in between buildings and can really rip through balconies and the plants growing there. Wind poses several problems to vegetable container gardens. First, it can damage the plant by ripping off leaves, or breaking branches. It can also tear off flowers before they can be pollinated. No pollination, no fruit/vegetables. Wind can also be cold, a bad thing if you’re trying to grow warm season vegetables like tomatoes or eggplant. Finally, wind dries plants and soil out.
Rest assured, there are things you can do to counteract the effects of wind on your container vegetable garden…
Protecting from Wind Damage
There are a couple of options for protecting plants from being whipped around in the wind. You can try one or the other, or use them in conjunction with each other for the best results. The first thing to try is to create a windbreak. Anything solid that you can put in between your vegetable garden and the direction the wind comes from will help. For example, you can purchase pieces of clear plexiglass and drill holes in the corners so that you can use zip ties to affix the plexiglass to your balcony railings. Of course this will only block the wind that comes through the railings. You can also use plants as windbreaks. Use a planter box to plant a dense hedge along the edge of your balcony.
The second thing to try will help protect young seedlings. Wrap clear plastic around the outside of a sturdy tomato cage. Poke a few small holes in the plastic to allow for air flow. Allowing some air to get through will help prevent diseases from taking hold and will also help strengthen the stems of the plant without breaking them.
Keeping Soil Moist
If you have lots of wind blowing through your container garden, it is really important that you go the extra mile to keep your potting soil from drying out. Wind will dry out the leaves of your plant, causing it to try and draw up more water from the soil. If you leave the soil uncovered, wind will also dry out the soil, compounding the problem.
If you need something super cheap, copy what EarthBox does and use a piece of black plastic (try cutting up a trash bag) to cover the surface of your pot. Use white plastic if you live in the desert. Fill the pot all the way to the rim with soil, and mix in slow release fertilizer. Secure the plastic over the soil with a large rubberband so that the plastic is taut. Use a sharp knife to cut an ‘X’ in the middle of the plastic that is just large enough to dig a hole and plant your seedling.
If the plastic mulch look doesn’t suit your tastes, use an inch of gravel, marbles, or tumbled glass to cover the soil after you’ve planted the seedling. If this is the route you choose, be sure to only fill the pot with soil to two inches below the lip of the pot so that you’ll have room for the gravel. Don’t use wood chips, they’ll just blow away and make a mess.
Beating the Cold
If your area gets chilly winds, wait to put out your warm season vegetables for as long as possible. For example, tomato plants will not grow very well (or at all) in temperatures below 60 degrees. Eggplants can be even more sensitive to cold weather. You can also look for varieties of vegetables bred for their cold hardiness. For tomatoes, that often means a tomato with the word “early” in it’s name, or a name that connotes cold temperature, like “polar” or “arctic.” These varieties produce fruit in a relatively short period of time, allowing you to put them out when things have warmed up, and still have time to produce fruit before fall.
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Great idea to protect the plant from wind by wrapping clear plastic around it, with a a few holes for air circulation of course.
I’m used to the wind of the Midwestern Plains, and I’ve just learned to live with it in the garden. Tender plants get moved to a corner with a little more shelter, the others just have to tough it out.
But, ya know, I never thought to mulch my plants to preserve moisture. Something make me feel like mulch belongs in a tidy perennial plant bed, not a vegetable garden, or a container. But it makes perfect sense. I think I’ll have to invest in some attractive gravel.
I think that last photo looks very zen, and maybe rocks will bring me a little zen, too. Or maybe the zen feeling will come if I don’t have to water everything twice a day. Though now I wonder if the rocks will get hot and scorch the plants?
yeah this advice gainst wind damage goes for any garden really. Last week several of my seedlings withered due to the wind completely sucking the moisture out of them *d’oh* -must remember to mulch *everything* thanks
Using a cold box would help too, but usually they are big and clunky. But yeah, those veggies are worth it. Matti
Matti–What is a cold box?
I probably would never have thought of all the ways the wind could be causing me issues, but the fact is that I garden on a deck on a corner townhouse that is perched up on a hill – we often get pretty fierce wind and I’ve had stuff knocked over before too.
Thanks for the tips here. I haven’t moved any of my seedlings outdoors yet but I’ll definitely take some more precautions when I do now that I’ve read this.
Great ideas! I’ve got a cold box on my balcony, it’s basically a box (3ft long X 2 ft wide X 8inches deep) with a glass lid to let light through the top. Protects little seedlings and lettuce from our early spring chilliness. Mines a homemade one…i used a thick plastic box that I salvaged from my work…and a clear plastic lid secured on with a huge rubber band. Not very attractive, but it works! My boyfriends next job is to build me one with wood!
Hi from England!
I have tried the hedge option to protect my balcony from the wind which whistles round in winter and is never far away in summer. The wind killed the hedge plants, although the box shrub seems to be recovering now the sun has come out at last! The conifers are not happy though – must be the wrong variety. I may have to try the plexiglas, but will have to get permission first as I live on an architect designed development and we have a very active resident’s association!!!
Alternative suggestions greatfully received
Nina
This helps with water retention – use a cube foot palnter(e.g. a milkcrate, suitably lined (I use waxed cardboard produce boxes, cut to fit). Fill bottom 1/3, to 1/2, with compost/mulch/grass clippings/ leaf mold…. Fill to within an inch or so of the top with good planting medium. Top with fine mulch and aged manure/time release fertilizer in the center. Plant seedlings in 4 quadrants. Use guaze/loose weave fabric, pinned down securely, to hold mulch – cut X’s to plant through. Water into center of box. This will hold 4 lettuce, 9 onions, or 12 to 16 carrots, etc.
I have a courtyard balcony (it’s between the two towers) and the wind comes from every single direction, and it’s gale force strong some days (gusts over 100km/h, which is over 80mph I think?) I have become very disheartened, as no matter when plant out, or how advanced it is, or what windbreak strategies I use, vegetables are shredded or dead within days. I can grow some local, wind-hardy ornamental shrubs, but I want to grow produce. I don’t have any inside space for growing things past the seedling stage.
Does anyone have any tips on vegetables that are extremely wind-hardy and grow well in containers?
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