Space Saving Ideas for Turning Your Balcony Into a Garden

You can purchase a trellis from most home improvement stores and even on sites like Etsy, but making your own as a DIY project is a viable option too. Trellises are perfect for vines and to hang planters from. Branches, bamboo, strips of wood, and landscape stakes can be used as a frame, and a thin twine can be used to construct the individual squares. A one-dimensional trellis can be leaned up against a wall or window for light and act as an interesting accent piece.

Garden towers are perfect for indoor gardeners that want to grow more food than a pot may allow. With a garden tower, an upright tower of soil can accommodate dozens of small plants on each side, each one on top of the other. It can be made of chicken wire with landscape fabric holding the soil in place. Holes can then be cut in the fabric to allow room for the plants, such as herbs, petunias, and strawberries to grow. Towers can also be made from gardening poles and used to grow climbing vegetables and flowers, like sweet peas.

Traditional gardeners have used hanging baskets for years. These portable options can be kept out of the way of furniture and residents and brought inside and outside at a whim. Place a hanging basket on a coat rack, curtain rod, or other large structure designated for your gardening ideas. Be careful, though; if you don’t line your basket with plastic and it hangs over furniture, water may drip from the bottom.

Often, hanging baskets are the ideal portable vessels for indoor gardening, but you may find your space inundated with them if you’re a little over-zealous. If you have a balcony in your condo or apartment, ask your downstairs neighbor if hanging your plants down over the balcony would be alright with them. The vital sunlight will help your vegetables, flowers, and succulents thrive and free up some of your living room space.

This growing method has become surprisingly popular over the past few years. PVC pipes are perfect vessels for succulents and other flowers and plants with short roots. By cutting holes that are spaced a few inches apart and hanging the pipe horizontally, you can hang this planter virtually anywhere. PVC is usually white, which is a pretty non-offensive color in most home decor color schemes, too!

Unless you have a south-facing window or perfect sunlight at all hours of the day, it might be hard to give your plants adequate sun without moving them in and out of doors every day. Luckily, railing planters are a great solution to this problem. These planters sit right over balcony railings and won’t disturb your neighbors below. If you’re growing plants with deeper roots, this may be a better choice than the PVC planter.

If one wall of your home or apartment receives regular sunlight, mounting planters onto the wall can be a great way to keep your plants off of the floor and allow them to enjoy the warmer air that rises to the top of your rooms. If you have a lot of seedlings to grow, pocket planters might be more useful than a handful of hanging pots. These come in different shades to match your decor, too.

Similar to railing planters, raised bed trough-style planters will fit against a railing and are similar to window boxes. Window boxes aren’t always viable in rented spaces, though, so raised bed planters are more realistic. They offer the same benefits and with the added advantage of portability in case you move and want to bring your new garden with you. These planters are great for vegetables and herbs that like full sun, like swiss chard and oregano.

Some raised planters will come in a shelf form with storage underneath. For potted plants that like some shade, this method of gardening lets you prioritize which plants get the most sun and which stay cool in the sand. Placing this shelf in an area that gets morning sun but limited afternoon light will help plants enjoy the gentle sunlight and avoid the scorching afternoon temperatures.

Many gardeners start their seeds and seedlings in small pots and then transfer them outside or into slightly larger pots to take root. If you find yourself with small pots scattered around your house and nowhere to put them, a planter holder can be the perfect place to organize your vegetables and flowers. It will also help you keep tabs on each plant’s progress and needs.