Balcony Gardens – Respect Your Growing Season
magicherb | December 23rd, 2009 - 10:05 pmLiving in Toronto, it’s easy to be jealous of someone in the south with a growing season that seems to me to last all year. But you live where you live and if you want to enjoy the fruits of success it’s necessary to respect the limitations of your growing season.
Although I successfully grew hot peppers last year, some of them came in just under the wire and I tend to favour short season tomatoes. Crops (although “crops” seems like a bit of an exageration when describing the amount to be grown in containers) that I will probably never try include such long season goodies like cantalopes and honeydew melons.
Respecting your growing season and what you would like to grow also means that some vegetables like spinach will grow early and late in the season, but not during the “dog days”of summer – although last summer in Toronto we didn’t have anything like that.
Look, if I talk too long here, all that will happen is that I’ll make a very simple idea much too complex and instead of helping you grow something great to eat on your balconies or decks or patios, I’ll just scare you off.
That is NOT my plan. So I’ll wrap up with this. Do just a little bit of research on the length of your growing season and get a feeling forthe things that just need more time to grow than your summer will allow.
To whom it may concern,
I am starting a balcony planter box which is 45″X20″ and I wanted to know if I should put stones in the bottom of the box to allow for water to flow through the tiny holes I drilled in the bottom.
What is your suggestion, if any about such stones?
Robert
Hi Robert,
It’s not really that the stones allow the water to flow through as much as they help to prevent the soil from draining out. Personally, with very small holes I don’t beleive that you’ll need them and they might actually block the holes. Stones will also add weight to the container. If- on looking at the holes you’ve drilled – you think it’s likely that the planting medium will flowout, then add a layer of stones or even pottery shards, but if you don’t think you’ll lose the medium, you can skip the stones.
Lorraine