Australia: No backyard required: I tried growing vegetables on a 20th-floor balcony – here’s what I learned
Don’t let limited space deter you from gardening in an apartment or townhouse. Here are some tips for growing your own food when outdoor areas are limited
By Peter Mares
The Guardian
21 Jun 2025
Excerpt:
Horticulturist Charlotte Harrison from Sustainable Gardening Australia thinks I might have had better luck if I’d planted tomatoes later in the season.
“Gardening at height is more extreme than gardening at ground level,” she says. “There’s heaps of extra heat radiating from the concrete of the building plus extra light reflected from glass.”
As a rule of thumb, Harrison reckons high-rise balconies can be one climate zone warmer than is normal for the local area. On our Melbourne balcony, she says, I’d do better to consult a Sydney planting chart when deciding what to grow and when.
“Think about the microclimate of the space you’re gardening in,” advises Harrison. “Consider how these conditions might be replicated in nature and what might grow there naturally.”
An east-facing space is generally more conducive to growing vegetables in summer than a west-facing one. Plants enjoy early light, when the sun is gentler, and shade in the afternoon as the temperature rises.
Winds are stronger higher up a building, so our balcony could be compared to a seaside cliff in the Mediterranean, better suited to hardy plants like olives and rosemary than to tomatoes. If conditions are too harsh for fruit or vegetables, then succulents and other desert plants can help to green a space instead.
Read the complete article here.
Source: https://cityfarmer.info/australia-no-backyard-required-i-tried-growing-vegetables-on-a-20th-floor-balcony-heres-what-i-learned/
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