Balcony Gardening

Spinach in plastic trays

“Do not throw away these four small plastic containers. Give it to me. Throw away the outer bigger cover that was used to hold them as it breaks in two pieces and can’t be utilised anymore as a dry fruit keeping tray.” I said and took the four little plastic containers, filled them with soil mixed with decomposed manure and put the spinach seeds in them. I watered them regularly and organic spinach were ready to be cut.

Without using synthetic fertilizers and pesticides, one can easily grow vegetables using manure or compost. I am sharing some tips to grow and get good yield from vegetables in pots in your balcony.

Fully grown Knol Khol or ghanth gobhi 

Select the pot of bigger size made up of mud or ceramics. You can also try growing plants in empty plastic bottles, empty tins or useless vessels. Don’t forget to make a small hole at bottom in plastic vessels for draining of excessive water.
Place the pot in south or west balcony where the plant can get maximum sunlight. You can also place it near the window which gets the maximum sunlight in your house.

Strawberry is ready for plucking

Put the stones or small pebbles in the lowest layer of pot.
Set the thick layer of soil above it.
Spread the vegetables peels, washed tea leaves or crushed egg shells.
Put some earthworms on it.
Cover the earthworms with final layer of soil.
Sow the seeds and moist the soil with water.
For the survival of earthworms it is necessary to keep the soil sufficiently moist as they can’t sustain in soil which has less moisture.

Capsicum is ready

You can select any vegetable like brinjal (eggplant), tomato, mint, fenugreek, spinach, capsicum, chili etc. You can buy seed or saplings from a nearby nursery.
To notice a new leave, a new flower or a new fruit on the plant is truly refreshing.
Planting vegetable in the balcony will also clean the air around your house.

Featured Pic – There are more than 35 tomatoes on a single plant in my balcony garden. I am happy to see so many organic tomatoes. That was not tough, anybody can do it! 🙂 

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