c/balcony-veggie-gardens

The community garden in Portland made me ditch my balcony setup

I spent a whole season babying 6 pots of tomatoes on my 4th floor balcony in Portland, got maybe 4 usable fruits total. Then I visited the Sunnyside community garden last August and saw someone growing the same variety in a 5 gallon bucket with just a bamboo trellis. They told me my issue was airflow and sun angle, not space. I mean, I still love my balcony for herbs, but I'm trying the bucket trick with a cheap oscillating fan next year. Has anyone else had better luck with containers on the ground vs rail planters?

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lisa_brown•8d ago

Just realized my balcony herbs were stealing water from my tomatoes

I was chatting with my neighbor Rosa last week about why her balcony tomatoes looked twice as healthy as mine, and she pointed out that my basil and rosemary were hogging all the moisture from the drip tray. She said her rule is one thirsty herb per tomato pot, max, and that changed how I saw my whole setup. Has anyone else had to split up their water-loving plants after a conversation like that, or am I the only one who ignored the spacing problem for 3 months?

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dylan265•8d ago

Saw a rooftop garden in Portland that put my balcony to shame

Last month I was in Portland for a weekend and this apartment building had this crazy rooftop setup with tomatoes and peppers growing out of old gutters and milk crates. It got me thinking about how much vertical space I waste on my own balcony, I've got maybe 6 square feet of floor but a whole wall of dead air. Anyone here tried hanging planters or those pocket wall systems for stuff like lettuce or herbs?

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davis.keith•10d ago

Had to pick between bush beans and pole beans for my tiny balcony

My rail planter only fits 3 pots so I went with pole beans on a cheap trellis from Home Depot. They climbed like crazy in 4 weeks but shaded out my basil underneath, next time I'm trying bush beans instead. Anyone else regret going vertical on a small space?

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dylan_stone33•14d ago

Vent: neighbor said my 12 tomato plants attract rats, then ate my cherry tomatoes anyway

Caught her grabbing a handful off my railing yesterday in Chicago, and when I asked she said the rats were my problem but the tomatoes were a community resource, so has anyone else dealt with balcony veggie thieves who also complain about your setup?

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ivan522•14d ago

That heatwave in Phoenix ruined my tomato plans, now I need shade ideas

So I went to Phoenix for work last July and came back to my balcony where 4 of 6 tomato plants looked like crispy bacon. My setup was full sun from noon to 6pm, temps hit 112 that week, and I didn't think about reflective heat off the building wall. Now I'm trying to rig up a shade cloth system but I'm stuck on the best way to attach it without drilling into the rental walls. Anyone in hot climates got a cheap DIY shade setup that actually holds up in wind?

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christopher67•18d ago

My balcony soil went from sad dust to living sponge in one season

When I first filled my 12 planter boxes three summers ago, the dirt was dry and crumbly, like something from a sandbox. Then I started adding my own compost from kitchen scraps, coffee grounds, and shredded leaves every single week. By the end of last August, I could stick my finger in and it stayed moist for days, and my cherry tomatoes went from maybe 40 fruits to over 200. The change honestly took about 10 months, and the worms showed up around month 8, which felt like a tiny victory. Has anyone else noticed their balcony soil getting better after a full season of feeding it? What's your trick for keeping it alive in those tiny pots?

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the_john•20d ago

My tomato dome collapsed at 6am and I saved it with a coat hanger

Woke up to my DIY PVC and netting cage flat on the balcony in Portland after a windy night, bent the hanger into a hook to pull the main stem upright and tied it with old shoelaces, now the cherry tomatoes are back to leaning toward the sun but I'm wondering if anyone else has a sturdier cheap fix for these gusty apartments?

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ray648•21d ago

Took me 3 weeks to figure out why my basil kept leaning sideways

Turns out my balcony railing casts a shadow that shifts at 2pm, so one side of the pot got way less sun. I rotated the planter 90 degrees every morning for 9 days before I measured the shade with a ruler. Has anyone else dealt with weird micro-shadows from railings or AC units?

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jordan464•21d ago

Shoutout to the ladybug larva I nearly killed last week

I was picking off aphids from my romaine and saw this weird spiky thing that looked like a tiny alligator. Almost flicked it off before I googled it on my phone. Turns out it was a ladybug larva and it can eat like 50 aphids a day. I found that stat on a university extension page, not some random blog. Now I check every leaf twice before I pull anything. My balcony tomatoes have been clean for 5 days straight. Anyone else finding bugs they thought were pests but were actually helpers? How do you tell the good ones from the bad?

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oscar390•1mo ago

Neighbor told me to stop overwatering my basil and she was totally right

I was drowning my basil plants every single day because I thought they needed constant moisture on a hot balcony. My upstairs neighbor saw my yellowing leaves and said 'you're killing them with love, give them a break.' I changed to watering only when the top inch of soil felt dry, maybe every 2-3 days now depending on the sun. After just 2 weeks the leaves perked up and turned dark green again. Has anyone else had to unlearn some bad habit from beginner gardening guides?

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davis.keith•1mo ago

Finally got my tomato plants to survive a windy balcony after 3 bad seasons

I live on the 8th floor in Chicago and every year my tomatoes would get shredded by the wind... Last May I lost 4 plants in one storm. I finally built a DIY wind barrier using a $20 bamboo screen and zip ties, and now my cherry tomatoes are actually producing fruit. Has anyone else dealt with balcony gusts ruining their setup?

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parkernelson•1mo ago

Ditched my $60 self-watering planter after one season

Bought one of those self-watering pots with a reservoir last spring for my cherry tomatoes. The roots just sat in water and rotted everything by July. Anybody else had better luck with these things or am I better off sticking with regular pots?

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the_reese•1mo ago

Spent 3 months watering my cherry tomatoes wrong before a neighbor pointed it out

I had this tiny balcony garden last summer and my cherry tomato plants looked terrible. Leaves curling, fruit splitting. I kept adjusting the soil, the light, even bought a different fertilizer. Nothing worked. My downstairs neighbor finally came up to borrow a drill and saw me watering. She was like "why are you dumping it on the leaves?" Turns out I was watering from the top like a lawn and the roots were barely getting anything. Switch to bottom watering in trays and within two weeks the plants looked totally different. Anyone else have a basic gardening skill that took you way too long to figure out?

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harper_wells•1mo ago

I finally tried vertical planters and now I'm a total convert

I was so skeptical of those tower planters for years. Thought they'd just dry out and look dumb on my 6th floor balcony. Then I set up a 4-tier one from Amazon for $35 back in April and my cherry tomatoes and basil are going absolutely nuts. Has anyone else had luck with the self-watering kind or is that just a gimmick?

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betty144•1mo ago

I laughed at using vertical trellises on a balcony - now I'm a convert

Look, I thought those Pinterest photos of balcony trellises were complete nonsense. My balcony is maybe 4 by 6 feet, who has room for a trellis? Then my neighbor Stacey grew 12 pole beans up a simple string trellis last summer and I watched her harvest more than my whole produce order from the store. I grabbed a $8 pack of bamboo stakes and some garden twine from the hardware store on Route 9, rigged up a basic teepee for my cucumbers, and by July that thing was loaded with 15 cucumbers. The real kicker was that the plants took up almost zero floor space since everything grew upward. Has anyone else had luck with a specific trellis setup for cucumbers on a small balcony?

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barbara_sanchez88•1mo ago

Roma vs. cherry tomato for a south-facing balcony - I picked wrong

I spent 2 months last summer debating between Roma and cherry tomatoes for my 4x3 balcony in Phoenix. I went with Romas because I wanted them for sauces and thought the bigger fruit would be worth it. Bad call - they got huge and leggy, snapped two trellises, and only gave me 8 tomatoes total by September. My neighbor had cherry tomatoes in basically the same setup and got like 40 tiny ones off one plant. Anyone tried determinate varieties on a hot balcony or should I just give up and stick with herbs?

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dylan265•1mo ago

My tomato plant snapped right at the base yesterday afternoon

I was just checking on my cherry tomatoes before dinner, and when I touched the main stem, it just bent over and snapped clean off. The thing was loaded with green tomatoes too, probably 20 of them. I had it in one of those cheap green wire cages from Home Depot, but I guess the wind last night put too much weight on one side. I tried to tape it back together with garden tape and a wooden skewer as a splint, but I doubt it'll take. Has anyone else had a plant break like this and actually save it?

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stellabennett•1mo ago

Just realized my basil wasn't growing because of the wrong pot color

I kept wondering why my balcony basil was so leggy and sad compared to my neighbor's plants, then I read on a gardening blog that dark plastic pots can heat up roots too much in direct sun. I had been using a black container on my south-facing balcony in Austin, so the soil temp was probably cooking the roots all afternoon. Has anyone else seen a big difference switching to lighter colored pots or fabric grow bags?

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alice991•1mo ago

My basil went from lush to yellow in just 5 days last month

I checked on my balcony garden one morning and noticed the leaves on my Genovese basil were turning pale. By day 3, half the plant was yellow and dropping off, which freaked me out since it was growing fine for 3 weeks before. Turns out I was overwatering because the pot had no drainage layer (rookie mistake, I know) and the roots started rotting. I drilled 6 holes in the bottom and let it dry out for 2 days, now it's bouncing back but lost about 70% of the harvest. Has anyone else had a near-total basil collapse from bad drainage?

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the_logan•1mo ago

Went to a rooftop garden in Brooklyn and saw how they handled wind issues

Last weekend I visited my cousin's rooftop garden in Brooklyn, and it got me thinking about how we balcony growers deal with wind. Their setup had these heavy ceramic pots (really thick ones, like an inch of clay) and they used tomato cages that were anchored into the soil with metal stakes. The thing that caught my eye was how they arranged things - tall plants like sunflowers and okra were clustered in the middle, with lower stuff like herbs around the edges. I've been losing soil from my balcony boxes every time a storm rolls through, and seeing their system made me realize I need heavier containers or at least some windbreak mesh. They also had a row of those cheap bamboo privacy screens tied to the railing, which cut down on the gusting a lot. The whole setup looked way more stable than my sad little plastic pots that tip over anytime it gets breezy out. Has anyone else dealt with wind messing up their balcony setup, and what did you do to fix it?

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the_evan•1mo ago

My $30 self-watering planter split open from the bottom last August during a heatwave

Came home to find soil and water all over my balcony floor and my tomato plant laying sideways, so now I just use regular pots with saucers and water them by hand twice a day, has anyone else had those plastic pots crack in direct sun?

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sagelane•1mo ago

PSA: Those cheap plastic self-watering pots from Amazon leaked water all over my neighbor's balcony below mine

I spent $35 on a 3-pack of those self-watering pots with the wicking system, and after 2 weeks the bottom seam split on the biggest one and dumped a gallon of tomato water on Mrs. Chen's patio furniture, so now I'm out the cost of the pots plus a $50 apology gift card, has anyone found a reliable self-watering setup that doesn't risk turning into a balcony flood zone?

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ryanh77•1mo ago

My neighbor's tomato plant gossip taught me a lesson about self-watering pots

I was out watering my peppers last Tuesday when I heard my upstairs neighbor on the phone saying her cherry tomatoes went from green to crispy in 3 days. She blamed the $25 self-watering pot she got online. I peeked at her setup later and the reservoir had slime buildup blocking the wick. Checked my own self-watering bucket from 2021 and sure enough, same issue after 2 years of use. Now I flush my reservoirs with diluted vinegar every 6 weeks and my basil has never looked better. Anyone else deal with gunk in their self-watering systems?

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wadeowens•1mo ago

Stuck between fabric pots and plastic pots for my balcony tomatoes

I spent way too long deciding between fabric pots and regular plastic ones for my cherry tomatoes on my 8th floor balcony in Chicago. Ended up going with a 10 gallon fabric pot because I was worried about root rot with the plastic. Three months in and I'm pulling tomatoes every other day, the roots are breathing fine, but I'm watering twice as often as I expected. Anyone else find fabric pots dry out way faster than they planned for?

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