Greening The Home in the City

Grow a Garden and Birds will Visit

Environmentalist Indira Naidoo writes:

I had done enough reading to know that with good sunlight and a few basic elements such as pots, organic potting mix, some manure, compost and regular watering, a thriving balcony garden wasn’t a total pipe-dream.

I drew up a plan of my balcony to determine how many fully grown plants I had room for. I knew overcrowding plants in small pots was a common mistake of the novice gardener.

I wanted my garden to be aesthetic as well as functional. I decided to use large dark-grey painted fibre-glass pots which were sturdy but light-weight and placed them on wheeled pot stands so I could relocate them more easily. I installed a vertical wall and hanging baskets on the railing to maximise my growing space.

Potted vegies need watering more regularly than vegies in garden beds because they lose more moisture through evaporation. So I invested in a watering can and attached a hose to my outdoor tap.

I also made sure my plants got regular feeds with mixes of diluted fish emulsion and seaweed fertiliser, Munash mineral rock dust and a little worm juice from my Hungry Bin balcony worm farm.

I sourced my seedlings from quality garden centres and mail-ordered organic heirloom seeds from Diggers and the Italian Gardener.