Fruits And Veggies To Grow On A Balcony Or Patio If You Don't Have Space For A Garden

Nothing prompts exclamations of "Oh, I wish I had a garden" faster than a supermarket trip. You must make your pickings from crops harvested who-knows-when, knowing full well they might spoil super-fast, even at eye-popping prices (seriously, why are herbs so expensive?). Fortunately, even as a city dweller, you can put your balcony — or patio if you're lucky to have one — to use to grow a few veggies and fruits of your own. You don't even need fancy gear for it. From milk jugs, storage bins, buckets, bleach bottles, and barrels to cinder blocks, anything works as a planting container so long it's 6 inches deep and has drainage holes.

Naturally, to make the mission of growing fruits and veggies on your balcony (or patio)' successful, you must stick to crops with small real estate demands, like radishes, lettuce, and carrots. Alternatively, you may select plants that promise yields for prolonged durations, such as tomatoes, eggplants, and peppers. Before zeroing in on a variety, check their growth requirements. Typically, most fruiting plants require full sun exposure, while leafy plants can tolerate some shade. Since containers dry out faster due to limited soil, be prepared to water them regularly. You might also be required to fertilize your container vegetables and fruits more frequently to make up for the potting soil's limited nutrients. With that established, we list five fruits and veggies you can grow on a balcony or patio.

Forget raised beds or carefully planned out garden rows. Instead, think of red-jeweled, aka strawberry containers lining your balcony and patios. Or, in case you're feeling particularly inventive, grow beautiful strawberries by using old tires! There are plenty of varieties and cultivars to choose from, too. For continual flushes throughout the season, select day-neutral varieties like 'Seascape,' 'Albion,' and 'Everest.' But if you're keen on nibbling different varieties, successively plant everlasting varieties like 'Ozark Beauty' and 'Tillicum.' To add a more decorative touch to your outdoor spaces, like pink flowers to complement the red fruits, purchase cultivars like 'Ruby Ann,' 'Summer Breeze Cherry Blossom,' or 'Toscana.'

As strawberries produce shallow roots, they're best popped in containers that are wider than deep. In other words, a pot measuring 12 by 8 inches will serve your berries well. Choose light-colored containers over darker shades, as strawberries are heat-sensitive and could benefit from some heat being reflected away. This is also why it's best to avoid hanging baskets, as they tend to grow hot quickly, drying out faster. Strawberries require full sun exposure (at least six hours of direct light). Blend their potting soil with an all-purpose fertilizer before planting your bare-root plants around 8 inches apart. Daily watering is vital to keep the medium moist and expect to fertilize every 10 days before they're ripe for harvesting.

Fancy tart fruits over sweet? Grow raspberries! They easily lend themselves to containers situated on balconies, patios, or decks, provided they get adequate sunlight and you've selected the right variety. Generally, most evergreen varieties, such as 'Polana,' 'Heritage,' and 'Fall Gold,' which can produce two crops in a growth season, grow easily in small spaces. Floricane-fruiting selections like 'Meeker,' 'Boyne,' and 'Cascade Delight' are also worthy options, though they start fruiting only in the second year. The Brazelberries series, especially 'Raspberry Shortcake,' is popular for container gardening because it is thornless and compact.

Unlike strawberries, raspberries' roots aren't surface-level and may penetrate 2 feet down. So, look for deep containers — a 30-gallon bucket is ideal, but if the chosen variety is small, you can grow it in a 20-gallon bucket as well. Provide them with a minimum of six hours of direct sunlight and well-draining soils. Remember, you'll have to provide trellis support to the maturing canes in the summer. Water regularly before the soil dries out and feed the plant a slow-release (preferably potassium-rich) fertilizer monthly. You can overwinter your containers indoors after cutting back the plant once you've harvested the fruits.

Believe it or not, there are myriad ways to grow delicious tomatoes without a backyard, ranging from grow bags, hanging baskets, and whiskey barrels to plain old containers. However, pick your variety wisely. If you've got your hands on 18- or 24-inch-wide pots or a 5-gallon bucket, look for smaller-fruited, compact varieties that brandish 'Bush' in their names, such as 'Bush Champion' and 'Bush Early Girl,' or the classically favorite 'Roma' variety — they may need cage support as the fruit crop can be heavy. In more constrained spaces, look for "Patio" varieties, like 'Patio Plum' and 'Patio Hybrid,' aside from 'Sweet 'N Neat Cherry' and 'Totem Hybrid.' Want something even shorter? Go for 'Tiny Tim;' it barely touches 15 inches at maturity. While you can certainly opt for pole varieties, erect a trellis, or their vines might flop over. Keep in mind that the bigger the container, the higher the fruiting for tomatoes.

Since tomatoes are vegetables grown for fruits, they'll need at least six hours of sunlight to show their best performance. Water them consistently without the soil drying out in between. If you tend to stay out for extended durations, consider investing in a self-watering container. Moreover, fertilize the container tomatoes with slow-release pellets like 20-20-20 weekly or fortnightly. Harvest the fruits when they're soft to the touch and uniformly red.

Apart from serving as a delicious, crunchy vegetable, Swiss chard is the plant to decorate your patio with for a gorgeous pop of color if you're ardent about growing its ornamental varieties like 'Bright Lights' and 'Ruby Red.' However, if you would like something easier to grow, the classic white-stemmed types, 'Green Chard' and 'Fordhook Giant Chard,' might be right up your alley, offering distinguished and mild tastes, respectively.

Since Swiss chard is unconcerned about temperature (unless it's freezing) and soil conditions, it adapts well to the container format. Besides, you can easily start it with seeds to get a reliable supply for your salad bowl. If not, plenty of nurseries carry starts, both during spring and fall. Unless you're looking for a massive chard supply for the whole family, in which case you would need a 10-gallon pot, you can usually make do with a 3-gallon or a 5-gallon container. Most seeds get buried about ½ inch deep in potting mixes, while the starts sit between 4 and 6 inches apart. Position their containers so they remain sunlit for around six to eight hours, although it doesn't mind a little shade. Wet the soil with 1 inch of water every week until you're ready to harvest the 8-inch long, crinkly leaves in under 75 days.

Wish to give your kids a taste of gardening and home-grown vegetables? Pivot to radishes. Who knows, they might get on board about finishing their salads. These veggies can be grown directly from seeds with little downtime. Although to ensure you and your kids don't lose interest prematurely, you'll be best served to look for short-season radish varieties. This also assures that the soaring temperatures won't play spoilsport, turning them bitter — radishes like it cool, after all. Otherwise, prime yourself for the veggie version of musical chairs, where you move containers to the beat of the sun. Popular varieties include daikon for high yields, 'Sparkler' for its sweet taste, and 'Cherry Belle' for its decorative red aesthetic.

Luckily, radishes thrive in the tiniest places you can muster; even a 6-inch pot can support their crop. Simply bury the seeds ¼ inch deep in the potting soil and wrap the pot in a plastic cover until you notice them germinating into seedlings. Water regularly to keep the soil moist. Feel free to grow them successively every few weeks for more yield, or pair them with carrots if you like. Follow the seed packet's instructions about thinning the plant (usually 6 inches). Harvest the radishes in under 30 days since sowing.