*A beautiful display on Comox Street.. (Beth Lopez Photos / Click images to enlarge).*

A BALCONY GARDEN IS A BEAUTIFUL THING INDEED

by Beth Lopez
(click photos to enlarge)
Gardeners won’t be held back by the lack of a backyard or a garden plot. A spot outside with access to sun and fresh air will suffice. Take a walk in the West End and look up. You will see balconies with window boxes and pots full of flowers and greenery waving as you pass.

Rosie, who has the Mole Hill garden plot, also has pots on her balcony. She has flowers like geraniums, and she grows a few herbs for her kitchen. It’s nice to have them so handy. The balcony garden has the extras that don’t fit in her garden plot. But for others, the balcony is all they have.

With limited space meaning a limited number of plants, each one can become special. We cheer their new buds and worry over every yellow leaf.

Another balcony gardener, Amanda, is going through a trying time. She has a balcony full of plants: big heavy pots on the floor, small ones on a table and a beautiful hanging arrangement. Her building is about to undergo renovations on the balconies, and she has to move her plants for the summer.

Amanda is worried about them. There isn’t enough room to bring them all inside. Besides, these plants thrive in the filtered sunlight and wouldn’t survive indoors. Foster parents for her plants are needed, but Amanda is worried. Will they get the kind of care that she gives them? Even more devastating is the thought that the foster homes will become too attached and won’t want to give them back.

Deb liked my sweet peas. When Deb moved into her new apartment with a spectacular English Bay view last year, she texted me and asked if they would grow on a balcony. My best guess was that if they had something to climb up and shelter from any strong winds, they’d do fine. And a picture later in the summer proved that indeed, they did very well.

Deb managed to find an apartment that is a gardener’s dream. She has a large north-facing balcony, a smaller one facing south and a bit of a shelf facing east that gets full sun. And she makes use of every bit.

She has been having fun ogling seed packets and picking up some that look promising. She has enjoyed gathering containers to plant in, from pots to plastic bowls and even an old pair of boots that happily supported soil and seeds from a packet of wild flowers.

She admits to doing exactly what my father did at the end of a work day. As soon as she gets home from work, she goes out to the balcony to check the plants. She will dig her finger into the soil to see if the soil is dry and if the plants need water. She can check to see if any strawberries or tomatoes are ready to pick or she might gather some sweet peas for a cut bouquet.

It’s true that on a balcony you won’t have enough produce to provide all your needs. Although it might be nice to think we’re saving on our food bill, most of us in the city garden for the joy rather than the practicality of it all.

But, like all gardens, it’s not all fun and games. Balcony gardeners face the ongoing quest for the best plants to suit their spot. Wind can be an enemy to the balcony garden and direct hot sun with no trees to filter the sunlight can be hard on many plants.

Being on the twelfth floor means Deb’s garden is safe from squirrels and skunks, but birds can prove a problem. The crows visit to strip bark off the driftwood. Deb has grown tomatoes and strawberries, and she succeeded in having them reach maturity without being stolen by birds. However, a newly planted seedling was ripped out. Knowing crows, it might just have been curiosity – “what’s this, what happens if I do this?”

Deb’s balcony, 2021, and 2022. They do grow on you!

Many of us live in the West End without a car and we can walk to most places we need to go, especially if we work here too. However, having no car makes transporting goods an issue sometimes. I have learned from Deb that three large bags of soil will bend the frame of the average market cart. Carrying home a flat of bedding plants isn’t happening. We have to buy them one or two at a time.

Deb’s planting of beets gave her lots of fresh beet tops but no big beets. The carrots were also disappointing. It’s hard to get a container deep enough with sandy soil to grow root crops. But the dill and parsley have been welcome additions to the kitchen.

The flowers, however, are the big draw. She has grown sweet peas, gladiolas, four o’clocks, penny blacks, mixed wild flowers, poppies and nasturtiums. If the picture on the seed packet looks interesting, she will find a container and give it a try.

We agreed on the pure joy of picking a berry off your own plant and popping it into your mouth. More than being incredibly fresh and organic, the best part is the knowledge “I grew that.”

I can picture Deb sitting on her balcony with a great view of English Bay, surrounded by her flowers, with fresh strawberries to pick and drop into her drink of choice. This sounds like a great way to end a summer’s day.

Our gardens cost money, make a mess, require lots of hard work and bring us worries and frustration. They also give us moments of pure joy.

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