Growing TONS of FOOD in a Super Small Garden – Balcony Container Garden Tour

Hi everyone! Welcome to our small balcony food garden. It feels incredibly special that we’re able to grow food up here, especially since we didn’t think we could do much without a backyard. We started small, just growing a few herbs and tomatoes last year. But this year, we got carried away, adding one more container after another, turning it into this lush little oasis that we now love spending time in. It’s amazing to harvest fresh food right outside our door.

Despite our small space, we’ve been growing and harvesting a surprising amount of food. We’ve eaten from the garden all summer long, thanks to the number of containers we now have and the succession planting we’ve been doing. Succession planting means we plant new crops once the previous ones slow down, so we always have something fresh to eat. Bumblebees visit our flowers daily, and we love watching them fill up on nectar while pollinating our plants. We also get regular visits from white butterflies, which we thought were beautiful until we realized they were cabbage moths eating our plants. We still have a lot to learn about our insect visitors!

We come out several times a day to water the garden, harvest veggies, and just enjoy how beautiful it looks, especially during the golden hour when the sun sets. We’re excited to show you what we’ve been up to. We’re growing some of our favorite vegetables, like cherry tomatoes, sugar snap peas, kale, beets, cucumbers, jalapeno peppers, and purple beans. Our herb garden includes parsley, basil, and mint, which we use all summer long. While we had cilantro and dill, they went to seed in the heat, but we’ll plant more when the weather cools.

We’re also glad we made space for flowers. They add bright pops of color, and we grow some edible flowers like nasturtiums, which we eat often. We also have calendula, which has many uses, though we mainly just admire it, and marigolds, which attract pollinators. The balcony is the perfect size for us, with a seating area and a storage box for cushions. The garden currently occupies about 45 square feet (4 square meters), but we love having plants so much that we think it’ll expand next year!

We mainly use three types of containers: deep rectangular planters for taller veggies like tomatoes and peppers, shallow window boxes for herbs and lettuce, and round pots for tomatoes. The round pots are easy to move but tend to be unstable in the wind, so next year we might use them for shorter plants. Sticking to a few container types helps with storage in the winter, and we prefer plastic containers because they’re lightweight and durable. We move them around often to protect the plants from harsh weather, and it’s easier on our backs when they’re light to carry.

This year, we built a few things to optimize our outdoor space, including a cedar slat table to elevate our window boxes for better sunlight. It also has storage underneath for tools and soil. We also made small cedar stools, which are much more comfortable than kneeling on patio stones. Setting up this balcony garden has been a lot of work, and we’ve had to learn how to manage pests, fertilize the plants, and keep them watered. The biggest challenge has been protecting the garden from heat waves, downpours, and high winds.

Despite the challenges, it’s been fun to see how quickly we’ve become obsessed with gardening. We’re now reading gardening books, watching videos, and planning what to grow next year. It feels so good to have a hobby that gets us outside, teaches us new things, and provides fresh food that we grow ourselves. If you want to see more gardening and homesteading content, check out our playlist, where we’ve featured people growing food in various spaces. Thanks for watching, and we’ll see you in the next video!