Right: Zen-like spaces make a balcony a place for peace and relaxation.
Insets: Creative lighting and vertical planting for personal- izing privacy.
Grow annual sun-loving vines
to
absorb the heat. Top of the list would be climbing beans. They love sunlight and will reward you with a tasty crop all summer as long as you keep pick- ing them. The Firecracker vine with its pretty red flowers grows to 10 feet. Hyacinth bean bears purple flowers and glossy violet pods, growing to 15 feet in a season. The leaves are dark green. And of course there are morn- ing glories, which will grow madly and reward you with beautiful flowers. You can choose varieties to match your décor – ‘Heavenly Blue’ is a real favou- rite, but they come in red, pink and even brownish-pink flowers outlined in white as in the variety ‘Chocolate’. The beautiful and elusively scent-
ed moonflower is a perfect balcony choice. It likes full sun and blooms in late afternoon and through the night, its fragrance whisking you away to dreamy places.
Dealing with cold and dark If your space is facing north and is
windy, you will need to think about a wind break of some sort. A fine mesh screen will block the wind, letting just enough air through to avoid causing too much turbulence elsewhere. It will also block sunlight. Your plant choices will be somewhat truncated in shade, but the lovely yet
26 SPRING 2013
tough little black-eyed Susan vine will tolerate some shade (although it loves sunlight, too) as will mandevilla. Japa- nese hops grows in shade up to 15 feet with big maple-leaf shaped leaves and interesting greenish flowers.
What containers to use While you can use any container as
long as it has a good drip saucer, you might want to try one of the new self- watering containers. They contain a reservoir for water at the bottom of the pot and some sort of wicking system to deliver the moisture up into the soil. The best advice, though, is to still use a drip tray, as most have an over flow mechanism. The downside to these systems is that it
is hard to flush out fertilizer salt build up, but that is a problem for every balcony garden unless you haul your plants into the house for a good bath and the chance to the water to run through a couple of times a summer. If you do this, be sure to wash the leaves – the plants will love it. Light-weight fibre glass planters are
a good bet for the balcony gardener and use a soil-less mix that you can lace with ground coco husk ( coir) to help keep the soil moist and easier to rehy- drate. A good mulch to keep moisture in is also useful on a balcony garden. Use good sized pots. The smaller
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