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 Posté le: Ven Sep 06, 2013 2:05 pm Sujet du message: Tips for a sky-high balcony harvest |
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{Tips for a sky-high balcony harvest}
Photos View gallery zoom Successful balcony gardeners can attest that it’s not always easy to be green.Growing conditions can be harsh, from scorching sun to gale-force winds to last month’s flooding rains in the GTA. Helping plants cope with the artificial environment of life in planters, window boxes and pots can be high-maintenance.But when you get it right, it’s extremely rewarding to pluck ripe tomatoes from planters, sip your morning coffee behind a flowery screen of exotic mandevillas or snip sprigs of fresh parsley and basil for dinner preparations.Twelve years ago, Andrea Vaughan gave up her backyard garden for a west-facing, 12th-floor balcony in Scarborough.“I’m a scavenger’” she proudly admits. And so she decided to transform hanging shoe bags into 120 individual grow bags for celery, tomatoes,[url=http://www.michael-korshandbags-outlet.org]Michael Kors Handbags Outlet[/url], mint and peppers.“The celery grew amazing,” she says, “And I had enough tomatoes for three salads!” She also designed a system for growing potatoes in a tower of plastic milk crates and harvested 50 pounds of spuds last year.As a surprise for her “foodie” sister Eileen, master gardener Maureen Hulbert used just five plant-filled pots to transform a small, shady north-facing balcony into a cosy, walk-out garden. Doing double-duty as both a beautiful and an edible garden, the containers featured lettuce,[url=http://www.michael-korshandbags-outlet.org]michael kors canada[/url], mint, purple fennel and parsley mixed with ornamental plants such as Japanese painted ferns, variegated English ivy and colourful coleus.Keeping container plants well-watered is especially tricky on rooftops and balconies where sun and wind can wick moisture from the soil very quickly. Vaughan admits to watering her shoe bag garden as much as two or three times a day.Garden tourism consultant Carol Cowan has cut down on how much she needs to water the mandevillas and passionflowers she grows on her ninth floor, west-facing balcony by mixing a moisture-retentive coco fibre product called Soil Sponge into the soil of her pots.“It made a real difference,” she says, “I cut down on watering from once a day to every other day and sometimes every third day.”One of the most surprising things master gardener Claire Trepanier found when she started gardening on her ninth-floor rooftop garden 15 years ago, was that she could grow perennials in pots — and they would stay alive year after year.“I’ve had clematis for five years,” she says, “growing in a deep, 14-inch-diameter container that’s shaded at the bottom so the roots don’t heat up,” she says. She also grows hostas, hydrangeas and a lovely dwarf lilac called “Miss Kim.”Her advice to first-time balcony gardeners is to keep it simple. “Start with three containers,” she says, “and try something easy like cedars. You don’t have to tend them like you do annuals.” Trepanier clusters her cedars to make a privacy fence and they form the “bones” of her rooftop garden just as foundation plants do around a house.Tips for what, how to growAs you consider a future balcony garden, Sara Katz of Wild At Heart Design recommends selecting tough plants with interesting structure and for longevity choose those that provide foliage rather than flowers. Her top three:1.Arctic willow: Able to withstand windy conditions and hardy enough to survive in the north, these shrubs make good hedges and screens, says Katz. Place them in planters at least the 2-1/2-feet wide and up to waist height so you don’t have to bend over to water them, she advises. One of her favourite Arctic willow varieties is Salix purpurea nana, which is a good dwarf specimen with blue-green foliage.2.‘Walker’s Low’ catmint: A short, bushy perennial, this member of the Nepeta family blooms all summer and attracts pollinators, too. When choosing flowering annuals or perennials, “always go for the short varieties,[url=http://www.michael-korshandbags-outlet.org]Michael Kors Handbags[/url],” says Katz, “because of the wind. Otherwise, the flowers and leaves get ragged.”3.Ornamental grasses: Medium-sized and short varieties do best on windy balconies. Katz recommends those no taller than two feet, including fountain grasses such as “Hameln” and “Cassian” as well as little blue stem and mosquito grass. Any of the sedges do well, too, she says.Green your balconyContainers: Bigger is better. A minimum of 20 to 24 inches in diameter is what Katz recommends. Large containers need watering less frequently and are heavier so they won’t blow away. Hulbert recommends anchoring the bottoms with bricks.Wind spoilers: Hanging baskets won’t last long on windy balconies. Instead of hanging them,[url=http://www.michael-korshandbags-outlet.org]Michael Kors Outlet[/url], Trepanier recommends popping them into containers for an instant garden.Know the rules: Real estate agent and master gardener Josée Couture stresses the importance of checking building regulations. Many condos restrict the use of window boxes on railings and prohibit drilling of holes in walls.Overwintering perennials, shrubs and trees: Select plants that are a zone or two hardier than our Zone 6 ground-bound GTA gardens. On balconies and rooftops, says Hulbert, “it gets cold earlier and warms up later.”Beat the drought: Succulents such as hens and chicks, hardy cactus (Opuntia) and yuccas can withstand drier conditions, as will herbs that hail from hot, dry Mediterranean climes, says Katz.Freelance writer and photographer Lorraine Flanigan is the editor of the Toronto Botanical Garden magazine, Trellis. Follow her on Twitter @citygardening.
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