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Gardening adventures in a small space
My Balcony
We're on the 18th floor of a condo high-rise in hardiness zone 5 - Toronto, Canada. Our balcony faces west but is also open to the north. During the summer the sun starts to peek over the overhang above the balcony around 1 PM and continues to shine in until sunset. The half walls around the outside of the balcony are solid which prevent all but an hour or two of sunlight from reaching pots on the balcony floor close to the half wall.
It gets windy up here but it's not that bad. We have family living a few floors below us with a balcony on the south side of the building and the winds on their side are very strong. Nothing much will grow there without protection from the wind.
Usually in late spring and early summer we spend time on the balcony but we find by late afternoon it gets too hot. A couple of years ago we had pigeon netting installed. Once your neighbours all do it, you pretty much have to do the same as the birds all tend to flock to the few remaining uncovered balconies. And a balcony like mine tends to provided them with too many nesting opportunities.
