Here’s how to grow some green on the balcony

By Martha Uniacke Breen

Just because you live in a condo doesn’t mean you have to give up gardening. Whether you want to grow vegetables or your favourite flowers, create an outdoor room for specific functions such as barbecuing or doing sun salutations, or just want to look out at something other than a bald concrete box, there’s a lot you can do to create your own private skybound oasis.

Allan Kling is the owner of Urban Garden, a downtown landscaping firm that specializes in inner-city plots, including terrace and balcony gardens. He thinks that a condo balcony should be much more than just a place to banish guests who smoke. But before you begin, there are some specifics you need to find out, he says.

First and most important, consult your condo board. Many condos have strict bylaws and regulations governing what you can do with your balcony, and they can make you take the whole thing out if you break the rules. Most condo bylaws won’t let you do anything that would alter the look of the condo façade as a whole, or make any permanent changes, such as painting it or adding built-in planters (unless they are removable). Some of them have to do with safety: You can’t attach anything to the railing, for example, that could be used as a step to jumping (or falling) off. Consider the neighbours as well; if you shower the guy below with a hose every morning when you’re watering your begonias, you’re going to get complaints. (And make sure anything you put out there is heavy enough not to blow over, especially off the balcony, where it can be deadly to someone below.)

Next, how much time are you prepared to spend on the garden? If you’re willing to devote a part of every day to maintenance chores such as watering, pruning and replanting, then you can be a bit more ambitious, but be realistic. Neglected plants look worse than no plants at all.

What are the conditions out there? Is it windy, cold, dry, sunny (and for how long each day), shaded? Toronto may be generally rated as Zone 6 for plant hardiness, but just a few storeys up the conditions become much less balmy. Mr. Kling considers most high-rise balconies to be around Zone 3 or 4; that’s the equivalent of Northern Alberta.

But even with these considerations, there are many beautiful options for enjoying your balcony — even no-care ones, if you choose. Paul Zammit, the Nancy Eaton director of horticulture for the Toronto Botanical Garden, says there’s no reason you can’t have as aesthetic an outdoor space in a condo as earthbound citizens do. It’s simply a matter of scale.

Plan the space as a whole, not just the planters, he says. Even on a 4×6-foot balcony, you can place a bench or seat, a small table for a drink, and a couple of urns to maximize a lovely view. (The same is true if you have an ugly view; again depending on your condo board’s rules, you can put up a screen, grow trailing plants such as morning glories or ivy on strings, or buy a small potted tree, to minimize it.) In a larger space, you could even create a mini-parkette, with winding walkways, potted trees and a hidden destination or focal point.

Next choose the type and position of containers, he advises. “There are fibreglass, resin, iron and some types of terra cotta containers that look beautiful all year round, won’t blow over in high winds and can withstand the elements.” Weight considerations are important, not just because of the load limit of the balcony itself, but also governing the amount that you can physically lift to get it up to the balcony. The easiest alternative is to buy a decorative container, put it in place first, then fill it with potting mix and plants. Some garden centres even sell preplanted “containers” in fibre pots that you can just drop into your decorative planter, saving you the trouble of planting, and  they’re lightweight enough to carry up to your condo.

Given the right growing conditions, there are a wide variety of plants that do well in containers, even sky-high ones. For four-season interest, Mr. Kling recommends small trees such as amur maple, serviceberry, juniper and tree lilac. Perennials and shrubs that work well include euonymus (especially the variegated forms such as ‘Emerald Gaiety’), boxwood, cranesbill, some hostas and grasses. Paul Zammit’s suggests adding accents such as calamagrostis ‘Karl Foerster,’ a type of grass that’s tough as nails, doesn’t grow too large and bears lovely gold-cream tassels that can be left in place all winter.)

Succulents are great for balcony containers, since they don’t mind the dry, windy conditions of balconies, come in a rainbow of sizes, colours and shapes, and almost all look good planted together. Many garden stores sell a huge variety of low-growing succulents like hens-and-chicks, letting you create a mini-tapestry that will last till frost; fill in bare spots with white gravel that you can remove as they grow in size.

If you don’t mind a little more work, think seasonally. In spring, you can bring in potted bulbs, replacing them with high-performing annuals such as petunias in summer, and finishing with mums in fall. Consider foliage plants as well, especially in shade. Both Mr. Zammit and Mr. Kling are great fans of coleus, which you can grow from seed right in the planter (or buy seedlings), come a variety of heights, leaf shapes and colours, and are almost as bright as flowering plants. And potted herbs are not only pretty to look at, they’ll provide a steady supply of fresh herbs for your table.

Even if you can’t (or don’t want to) have actual living plants, there are alternatives that are beautiful and much less maintenance. Nowadays, you can buy artificial plants and trees that are so lifelike, you practically have to touch them to know they’re not real, and they’ll last for years looking as healthy as when you bought them. And you can add other features such as a small water feature that emits a soothing sound, or a sculpture or art piece as a focal point.

The main point, Mr. Zammit says, is not to take on more than you can reasonably maintain; it should be a refuge at the end of the day, not another chore. Balcony gardens have special requirements, but they offer special pleasures as well: seeing young leaves unfurl close-hand, enjoying the whisper of wind through grass or the trickle of water instead of your neighbour’s stereo — or just feeling connected to the earth, though it may be 20 storeys below.

From Allan Kling, Urban Garden: Preferred plants for balcony gardens

Tall – deciduous
• downy serviceberry
• amur maple
• lilacs:  Japanese tree, dwarf, common
• blue beech (carpinus caroliniana)

Tall – evergreen
• most columnar forms of juniper (Fairview)
• Vanderwolf’s Pyramidal pine
• Fat Albert spruce
• Korean fir

Mid
• purple sand cherry
• burning bush
• dwarf Alberta spruce
• Hill’s yew
• hydrangea ‘endless summer’

Small
• sedum autumn joy
• most forms of carpet juniper
• euonymus ‘emerald gaiety’
• boxwood

Perennials / Grasses
• Karl Foerster Reed Grass
• Cranesbill (geranium ceinerium ‘Ballerina’; g. psilostemon’Rozanne’)
• Hakone grass
• Echinicea ‘Pica Bella’
• Lamium masculatum ‘Red Nancy’