"Balcony gardens are common where people live in apartments or condominiums because colorful, vibrant, charming balcony gardens bring life to city landscapes all summer long. This provides some very tangible benefits to apartment dwellers."

Balcony gardens are common in places where people live in apartments or condominiums because colorful, vibrant, charming balcony gardens bring life to city landscapes all summer long. They also provide some very tangible benefits to apartment dwellers.

Benefits of Balcony Gardens

For the people inside the apartments, balcony gardens have many aesthetic and healthy virtues:

• reduction of noise that enters through widows, open and closed,
• improved views from the windows,
• plants block city dust from entering apartments,
• plants cool the air before it enters an apartment,
• fresh herbs grown on balconies add flavor and nutrition to food.

Two Key Features

Weight and secure fixtures are the two keys to safe balcony gardens.

Keep the weight of your planter low by using plastic planters and special enhanced soils so you can use less soil. Plastic planters come in a beautiful selection these days, looking very much like real terra-cotta. There are even corner-railing planters to make use of all your available balcony space. Sitting on your balcony, you can be surrounded by flowers!

Securely attach all balcony pots and planters so there are no accidents with falling objects! Never set plants on the balcony railing; preferably have them attached to the inside of the railing. Use plastic plugs in any holes drilled in the walls for plant holders to ensure the screws don’t loosen in the wind.

Attach as much as possible to the building walls rather than to your balcony itself, reducing the weight load on the balcony. For example, use wall-mounted plant hangers for your hanging baskets, and consider buying a wall-mounted pot-rack to hold your herbs and small flowering plants.

Plants and Care

Plant up your pots and planters densely so they look great immediately.

Don't be afraid of color. In your small space you can use strong, vibrant, clashing colors. It’s part of the balcony garden’s charm.

If possible, use fragrant plants that will carry their perfumes inside with the breeze.

Use long and abundant flowering annuals to get a great show all summer long.

Geraniums are probably the most popular flowers on balconies because of their good growth and attractive leaves and flowers. They come in standard varieties and hanging varieties in various colors. It's actually a perennial if you live in a mild climate.

Fertilize your plants with a liquid fertilizer with every watering to keep them healthy and flowering as long as possible.

If you live in a very hot climate, water the plants often and use special gelatin crystals that help retain moisture in the soil.

If regular watering is a problem for you, invest in some 'self-watering' pots and planters. Or you can use the old wine bottle trick:

• Fill a wine bottle with water and stick the neck straight down into the soil. The water is released slowly into the soil as the soil dries. This trick can keep a plant moist for several days to weeks, depending on the weather.

Herb Tips

Plant out pots of herbs at the beginning of summer and you can have freshly picked herbs all summer long. Pick off the mature leaves for use. Leave the young leaves to keep growing.

It's best to buy pots of herbs already sprouting. It saves time and energy and gives you herbs to use immediately. They're not very expensive these days.

Many herbs do well in shade and in poor, sandy soil. So you don't have to be too fussy with them. They generally don’t need fertilizing.

Be sure to clip or pinch off the seeds when they sprout at the tips of the herbs. This will keep them growing longer. The expression 'gone to seed' means they are going dormant and seeding for next year. By removing the seed-heads, you prolong your herb's growth phase. They'll grow back. Either remove them again, or leave them if you want flowers. Most herbs have purple flowers.

At the end of the growing season, usually around October, clip the herbs that are left and put them in glass bottles with vinegar and cut cloves of garlic. Cork the bottles and within weeks, you have herbed vinegar for use on salads or for use in marinades. It doesn't go bad. The longer it sits, the stronger, and then mellower, the flavor gets. They’re also beautiful decoration for the kitchen!

Popular Herbs

Rosemary is an evergreen perennial but doesn't like it's roots frozen or it may die. It has pretty purple flowers at the end of summer. Rosemary is especially wonderful with potatoes and meat dishes.

Oregano is a perennial; it grows back each year. It has strongly-scented, purple flowers at the end of summer. It's great in sauces and in breads and rice dishes.

Basil is a very tender annual and it's odor attracts snails and caterpillars, so keep an eye out for them if you live near the ground. It comes mainly in green and purple varieties. Purple is harder to grow and, I think, less attractive on the plate. Basil is wonderful on freshly sliced tomatoes and on all salads.

Parsley should not be cooked, but sprinkled chopped-finely over finished dishes. I find that parsley doesn't grow fast enough to use as much as I'd like, so if you have access to bunches of it at your grocery store, it may be best to buy it there. If you only use a bit, then try growing your own and picking it fresh. Home-grown parsley always has a better flavor.

Candida Martinelli - Candida Martinelli grew up in San Francisco, California, but lived many years in Florence, Italy. As an outlet for her love of Italian culture, she set up Candida Martinelli’s Italophile Site a few years ago. It’s grown since then into a site that celebrates Italian culture for both children and adults. Candida offers up Italian culture in a fun way, with lots of pictures, and links for those who want to learn more after her introduction to a subject. She covers everything from Italian home decorating to gardening, fashion, music and movies.   Website: Candida Martinelli’s Italophile Site To review the Reprint Rights for this article, please go to the authors page by clicking the button below.