Growing fruit and vegetables on your balcony

Growing fruit and vegetables on your balcony is easier than people often think. A mini raised bed, a few large containers and some hanging baskets or a hanging shelf are all it takes to create quite a lot of space even on smaller balconies. This will allow you to enjoy a bountiful and colourful harvest in the summer. Whether you prefer to nibble on vegetables or sweet berries, we show you which plants you can use to turn your balcony into a little snacking paradise!

If you're looking to turn your balcony into a snacking corner with delicious sweet vegetables, you'll be spoilt for choice: tomatoes, cucumbers, Swiss chard, spinach, sweet potato, kohlrabi, beetroot – in principle, almost every vegetable plant can be grown on the balcony, as long as you've got enough space.

Vegetable varieties that produce small, bite-sized fruits are especially recommended to nibble on. These include small radishes, mini carrots, small cherry tomatoes or special mini-snack vegetables, for example. Such 'snack' vegetables are the perfect size for eating immediately after you pick them. So, instead of long snake cucumbers, simply plant a few mini-snack cucumber varieties with fruit of only about ten centimetres in length when you pick them.

When it comes to snacking, strawberries are an especially popular balcony plant! Not only do they taste great when freshly picked, they are also incredibly easy to grow in pots, window boxes, mini raised beds or hanging baskets. Plus, compact berry bushes growing just a metre or so tall, like 'Summer Lovers Patio Red' raspberries, let you enjoy sugar-sweet berries straight from the bush.

You can also include small balcony fruit trees like a small balcony peach, which will charm you with its enchanting pink flowers in the spring and delicious peaches in the summer. Although special fruit trees of this nature remain about one metre tall in a pot, they can reach a height of up to two metres in the garden.

For even more Mediterranean holiday flair, small lemon trees, dwarf pomegranates or mini orange trees are perfect. Balcony almond trees, cape gooseberries, figs or papayas are also good for planting in a container.

Classics like apple, cherry, plum or pear can also be grown on a balcony. You can achieve this by planting special columnar fruit trees. Unlike their garden counterparts, a columnar fruit tree grows very slowly and remains quite compact. Thanks to its height of up to 2.5 metres, a columnar pear or cherry tree is also ideal for use as a privacy screen – and provides a magical display of blossoms in the spring! To prevent your columnar fruit trees from tipping over in strong winds, it's advisable to plant them in a heavy pot.

Tip! You should check whether your columnar fruit or your berry bushes need a new pot every two to three years. These perennials should be planted in fresh substrate every four years at the latest.

In addition to fruit trees in a container and balcony vegetables, you can also grow all kinds of herb, of course. From basil across rosemary to chives, if you can still find a few free spots on your balcony, simply plant some herbs! As a rule, herbs remain quite small and compact, meaning they are easy to grow in a pot or flower box. The 'Magic Blue' bush basil attracts a lot of bees for pollination and is a real feast for the eyes. Parsley, rosemary, oregano, curry plant, thyme or chives are wonderful herbs for use in the kitchen as seasoning. And sage, peppermint and chamomile can be used as medicinal herbs for a cold, making them a great addition to the home pharmacy. They are wonderful for making herbal teas.

By the way, in addition to being pretty, some plants that you would think of as 'flowers' at first glance are also wonderful spice herbs. These include the signet marigold or the nasturtium, for example. The colourful flowers of these plants can be used in desserts or heartier dishes. English lavender not only enchants bees and butterflies with its aromatic flowers. Used sparingly, it can also spice up a wide variety of dishes – from cheesecake to fillet.

In addition, similar to roses or eucalyptus, lavender can be used for bath salts, scented candles or body oils. Although this doesn't give you anything to nibble on, it's another great way to make use of this pretty scented plant.

You can plant many fruit trees or berry bushes in your balcony garden in early spring – but you should always pay attention to the weather. If strong frosts still prevail, it's advisable to leave the plants indoors in front of the window for a little longer.
Particular care should be taken in the case of flowering fruit plants, as the flowers are often susceptible to frost – even if the actual tree is winter hardy. Accordingly, it's advisable to put the fruit tree indoors if it starts to freeze during the flowering period. To make sure you can still look forward to a bountiful harvest, you should take pollination into your own hands and carefully dab the flowers with a brush.

While broad beans, root vegetables such as parsnips or carrots and various leafy vegetables can be sown in the vegetable patch in early spring, other vegetable plants like tomatoes, cucumbers or peppers can only be planted outdoors after the last frost has passed.
Of course, if it's already warm and sunny in April, then you can put the balcony vegetables outdoors earlier. Begin by putting the plants outdoors in warm but cloudy weather. This will allow the plants to gradually get used to their new surroundings. At night, when it gets cooler again or frost is actually forecast, bring the vegetable plants back indoors. If you were to place your pepper plant in the blazing summer heat all of a sudden without warning, this balcony vegetable could suffer sunburn.

Tip! If you want to pre-germinate the frost-sensitive vegetables, you should do so on a bright, warm windowsill. 

Tip! Plant winter hardy balcony vegetables and strawberries from March

You can start growing vegetables and fruit from as early as March or April if you feel like it. For example, you can sow small radishes and carrots or plant lettuces and strawberries if the weather is good. The delicious balcony vegetables and sweet strawberries can be complemented with winter hardy horned violets. You can also use these pretty-looking colourful flowers to garnish salads and desserts.
When there is no longer a risk of late frosts, from May onwards, you can plant other vegetables like tomatoes or peppers instead of horned violets, lettuces and small radishes.