Growing vegetables on a balcony in pots

Smokeycastle grows some Vegetables

Gardening is a pastime that I have always enjoyed. I live in a unit so I do not have much space to garden but my balcony gets a lot of sun and is great for growing plants in pots.

As you can see I have a number of plants growing from pots here and am decently happy with the outcome of my spring planting. From left to right I have a 1 million scoville chili, A tomato plant, A honeydew melon vine (that also has baby chili plants in it, A pumpkin plant that also has two chili plants growing in it. The last pot has a succulent that grows year round that I have had for a couple of years now that even survived a house move too!

I have been growing plants on balcony’s for the last 6 years and have had decent success with the best harvest being chili plants. I have grown brassicas, herbs and broad beans to varying success previously.

I am thinking that I will during summer maybe invest in buying a solar powered water pump and build my own hydroponic vertical column. It remains to be seen if the plants in that will survive being that they will only get water during the brighter days. I have never done hydroponic setup and am looking forward to the challenge. With vertical hydroponic setups you can get a surprising amount of plants growing in a small amount of space, and being in Australia getting enough sun is not an issue. hopefully even though Canberra winters are cold I should still be able to grow year round with that setup. Currently I use the winter months to recondition the soil in the pots and to make a compost from the household scraps.