A balcony vegetable garden: growing your own food, even in an apartment

Growing your own food sounds like something for people with land in the country. But a balcony of a few square meters or a sunny windowsill can produce vegetables, greens and herbs all year round. In a crisis, that means fresh vitamins when supermarket shelves are empty. In ordinary times, it means good flavor and some money saved.

Step 1: Assess your balcony

• Light: most fruiting vegetables (tomatoes, peppers, cucumbers) need at least 6 hours of direct sun a day. A balcony that gets sun most of the day is ideal. With morning sun only, lettuce, spinach and herbs do well. In shade, only leafy greens.
• Wind: on high floors wind dries plants quickly and snaps stems. Use screens or shorter plants.
• Weight: containers full of wet soil are heavy. Spread them along the walls rather than on the edge of the balcony, and don’t overload old balconies.
• Water: you need easy access to water and saucers under pots so you don’t flood the neighbors below.

Step 2: Containers and soil

• Pots of at least 10 to 15 liters for tomatoes and peppers; planters 15 to 20 cm deep for lettuce and radishes.
• Drainage holes are a must, with a layer of gravel or clay pebbles at the bottom.
• Good potting compost for vegetables, not soil from the park. Mix in some garden compost for nutrients.
• Grow bags or vertical planters if floor space is tight.

Step 3: What to grow

Plant	When to sow or plant	Light	Notes
Cherry tomatoes	Young plants after the last frost	Full sun	Need stakes and daily watering in summer
Peppers, chilies	Young plants after the last frost	Full sun	Productive in large pots
Lettuce, arugula	Early spring and late summer	Partial shade is fine	Dislike strong heat
Radishes	Spring and early autumn	Sun or partial shade	Ready in 4 weeks
Spring onions, green garlic	All year, from bulbs	Any	The easiest crop
Spinach	Early spring, autumn	Partial shade	Tolerates cold
Climbing beans	Late spring	Full sun	Need strings or netting
Strawberries	Spring	Sun	Work in hanging pots too
Herbs: basil, parsley, dill, thyme, mint	Spring	Sun or partial shade	Keep mint separate, it spreads aggressively

Timings depend on your climate: follow your local last-frost date.

All year on the windowsill: sprouts and microgreens

The fastest fresh food you can grow, even in winter, even without a balcony:

• Sprouts (alfalfa, radish, broccoli, lentils, chickpeas, mung beans): soak the seeds overnight, then rinse them twice a day in a jar with a gauze lid. Ready in 3 to 6 days.
• Microgreens (sunflower, pea shoots, radish, arugula): sow thickly in a tray on a thin layer of soil or a damp cloth. Cut after 7 to 14 days, when the first leaves appear.

They’re rich in vitamins, need very little water and grow without strong light. A supply of sprouting seeds is an excellent addition to your emergency pantry.

Watering and care

• In summer, pots dry out fast: water early in the morning or in the evening, at the base of the plant.
• A layer of mulch (straw, bark) on the soil surface holds moisture.
• Feed every 2 weeks while plants are fruiting, with vegetable fertilizer or compost tea.
• Collect rainwater if you can, and reuse the water from washing vegetables.

Save seeds

From heirloom (non-hybrid, not F1) tomatoes and peppers you can save seeds for next year. For an emergency stash, keep a few packets of the easiest varieties somewhere cool and dark. Most stay good for 2 to 4 years.