Bonsai Trees and Herbs For Apartment and Condominium Balconies
Create a unique environment and expand the living space in your apartment or condominium by growing bonsai trees, herb plants, and exotic plants on your balcony.
To get started, begin by thinking about the effect you want to achieve and choose plants that will help you fulfill that vision.
It is important to be realistic in your plant choices depending upon the climate of your balcony to insure year round survival.
There are balcony plants available for just about any environment in the continental United States.
Even in the coldest zones, there are many dwarf conifers, dwarf trees and shrubs, bulbs, and perennials that can be used to create a mini alpine garden right on your balcony that will survive and thrive for many years.
Apartment and condominium residents may even find that they are able to produce a small but reliable income if they establish and grow to sale dwarf pomegranates, dwarf conifers, and other bonsai tree specimens produced right outside their balcony door.
If it is food and herbs that you desire, there is no reason you cannot be a successful balcony gardener if you take into consideration the changing micro climates that exist in your garden over the course of the seasons.
There is nothing more rewarding than growing herb plants or cherry tomatoes for your salads and sauces, or strawberries for the top of your sundaes from your balcony garden.
If pastas, soups, and stews are where your culinary expertise reside, and you are in Zones 5-9 or 12-24, there is no reason why Laurus nobilis on your balcony cannot provide all the fresh bay leaf you will ever need.
Whichever plants you choose for the apartment or condominium garden, it is important you capture the excess water that runs through your plant containers so that it does not run off onto your balcony or onto the neighbors below.
Allow the water to completely drain through the growing medium.
Soil that does not drain well can become sour, or fertilizer salts can build up to an unacceptable level.
An easy solution, in our plastic-based society, are the many containers whose bottoms can be cut off and used as water-tight saucers.
(The remaining unused part of the container is still acceptable for recycling.
) In any case, with few exceptions, it is NOT desirable to allow the plants to sit in water after irrigating.
Turkey bulb basters are useful for removing the excess water from individual plant saucers and are readily obtainable from most dollar stores or thrift shops.
Do NOT pour the excess water down the drain since most drains eventually reach either a potable water table or the sea.
Instead, this water should be used to water the one or two larger plants on your balcony, for example, the Laurus nobilis mentioned above if you are producing herbs,or perhaps a Pinus thunbergii if you are growing bonsai.
Finally, it is important to remember that you cannot expect to be successful if you do not feed the plants you select to grow.
There are many brands of fertilizer products available in conveniently sized packaging, that are reasonably priced and easy to use.
In most cases, a balanced fertilizer where all three numbers on the label are more or less equal will provide very satisfactory results.
As you become more confident in your ability to grow plants on your balcony, the use of an unbalanced fertilizer to manipulate the production of foliage, flowers, roots, or fruit, can be tried.
Manipulating fertilizer ratios, for optimizing specific areas of plant development is a story for another article.
A successful balcony garden will create a unique environment and expand the living space of any apartment or condominium.
If the balcony gardeners bonsai trees generate supplemental income or their culinary herbs spice up their favorite dishes, the experience will be doubly rewarding.
Copyright: Gilbert Foerster/2009
To get started, begin by thinking about the effect you want to achieve and choose plants that will help you fulfill that vision.
It is important to be realistic in your plant choices depending upon the climate of your balcony to insure year round survival.
There are balcony plants available for just about any environment in the continental United States.
Even in the coldest zones, there are many dwarf conifers, dwarf trees and shrubs, bulbs, and perennials that can be used to create a mini alpine garden right on your balcony that will survive and thrive for many years.
Apartment and condominium residents may even find that they are able to produce a small but reliable income if they establish and grow to sale dwarf pomegranates, dwarf conifers, and other bonsai tree specimens produced right outside their balcony door.
If it is food and herbs that you desire, there is no reason you cannot be a successful balcony gardener if you take into consideration the changing micro climates that exist in your garden over the course of the seasons.
There is nothing more rewarding than growing herb plants or cherry tomatoes for your salads and sauces, or strawberries for the top of your sundaes from your balcony garden.
If pastas, soups, and stews are where your culinary expertise reside, and you are in Zones 5-9 or 12-24, there is no reason why Laurus nobilis on your balcony cannot provide all the fresh bay leaf you will ever need.
Whichever plants you choose for the apartment or condominium garden, it is important you capture the excess water that runs through your plant containers so that it does not run off onto your balcony or onto the neighbors below.
Allow the water to completely drain through the growing medium.
Soil that does not drain well can become sour, or fertilizer salts can build up to an unacceptable level.
An easy solution, in our plastic-based society, are the many containers whose bottoms can be cut off and used as water-tight saucers.
(The remaining unused part of the container is still acceptable for recycling.
) In any case, with few exceptions, it is NOT desirable to allow the plants to sit in water after irrigating.
Turkey bulb basters are useful for removing the excess water from individual plant saucers and are readily obtainable from most dollar stores or thrift shops.
Do NOT pour the excess water down the drain since most drains eventually reach either a potable water table or the sea.
Instead, this water should be used to water the one or two larger plants on your balcony, for example, the Laurus nobilis mentioned above if you are producing herbs,or perhaps a Pinus thunbergii if you are growing bonsai.
Finally, it is important to remember that you cannot expect to be successful if you do not feed the plants you select to grow.
There are many brands of fertilizer products available in conveniently sized packaging, that are reasonably priced and easy to use.
In most cases, a balanced fertilizer where all three numbers on the label are more or less equal will provide very satisfactory results.
As you become more confident in your ability to grow plants on your balcony, the use of an unbalanced fertilizer to manipulate the production of foliage, flowers, roots, or fruit, can be tried.
Manipulating fertilizer ratios, for optimizing specific areas of plant development is a story for another article.
A successful balcony garden will create a unique environment and expand the living space of any apartment or condominium.
If the balcony gardeners bonsai trees generate supplemental income or their culinary herbs spice up their favorite dishes, the experience will be doubly rewarding.
Copyright: Gilbert Foerster/2009
Source...