You can grow delicious herbs and vegetables at your home, even if you don’t have a yard!
Almost all of the vegetables and herbs that you would grow in the ground, will also grow well for you in a container. In fact, because gardening, even on smaller scales, has become more popular over the last few years, there are some vegetable varieties bred just for container growing. There are also more container options for vegetable growing than ever before, not that you need to buy something special… part of the fun is turning interesting or unexpected objects into creative planters!
So, what can you grow on your balcony or patio? Annual or perennial herbs, some fruits such as strawberries, tomatoes (look for ‘patio’ tomatoes or choose a determinate variety, unless you’re prepared to prune and provide support), peppers, eggplant (Asian varieties work best because of their smaller fruits), broccoli, cabbage, cauliflower, peas and beans (with support trellising), any leaf crops such as lettuce, swiss chard and kale, even onions and root vegetables such as radishes, carrots and beets! Cucumbers can do well but need extra support if they are a vining type and potatoes can be grown quite well, in their own large container. Things that don’t work so well are corn (which needs to be planted in larger numbers for good pollination), winter squash, melons and vining cucumbers (any of which can take over your entire balcony!) and perennials such as asparagus.
