You don't need your own garden to harvest fresh vegetables. A sunny balcony also offers the best conditions for this. You can easily build and create a vegetable balcony garden yourself, which is a visual highlight, using our instructions and you will soon be looking forward to delicious vegetables.
How do I create a vegetable patch on the balcony?
A vegetable patch on the balcony can be created with potted plants or a self-made raised bed. Tomatoes, peppers, cucumbers, carrots, lettuces and radishes work well for this. A drainage layer made of expanded clay and a mixture of soil and mature compost as a substrate are recommended.
The vegetable patch in the bucket
Flowering potted plants can be found on almost every balcony. So what could be more obvious than repurposing the existing planters next year and planting vegetables in them? Bowls, troughs and boxes just need to be large for this purpose and, for example if you want to grow carrots in them, deep enough.
When it comes to planting, you have plenty to choose from: tomatoes, peppers and cucumbers thrive excellently in pots or boxes. Carrots, salads, radishes and even the popular sweet potatoes are also wonderful for the vegetable patch on the balcony.
Build a raised bed for the balcony yourself
In many hardware stores you can also get ready-made raised vegetable beds for the balcony. These hold less substrate than models for the garden, so that the balcony slab is not burdened with unnecessary weight.
Especially if the architecture of the balcony is difficult, for example because the patio is very long and narrow, it makes sense to build the raised bed yourself and thus make optimal use of the available space.
Construction instructions
Material list:
- 2 wooden boards in the desired width, 40 cm high
- 2 wooden boards of the desired depth, 40 cm high
- 1 matching floor board
- 4 not too thin square strips as feet
- 2 strips to stabilize the feet
- 4 to 6 strips to secure the floor
- Pond Liner
- Screws
- Cordless drill
- Tacker
Execution
- First screw the side panels and the base together.
- The thin strips are attached under the floor as security.
- Screw on the feet and connect two feet with cross bars for additional stability.
Although the wood on the balcony is not as exposed to the weather as in the garden, it is recommended to give the raised bed a protective coat of paint before planting.
Then lay out the pond liner in the plant bowl. The material should completely line the vegetable bed for the balcony and not be cut up so that the wood does not come into permanent contact with the water. Staple the foil all around.
The finished raised bed can now be filled with soil and planted.
Which substrate is suitable?
A mixture of soil and mature compost is suitable for the balcony vegetable garden, which provides the vegetable plants with all the nutrients they need. A drainage layer made of expanded clay filled into the bottom of the planter has also proven to be useful, which serves as a water reservoir and prevents waterlogging.
Tip
Since the limited amount of substrate cannot store as many nutrients as garden soil, regular fertilizer applications are advisable.
