6 Common Beginner Balcony Gardening Mistakes // Balcony Vegetable Gardening Tutorial

Gardening is such a rewarding experience for any person wanting to grow their own plants. And the good news? You don’t need a full backyard to have one! Balcony gardening, or container gardening, is the best way to grow edible plants and flowers with limited growing space.

In this video, I share the top 6 balcony gardening mistakes that I have personally seen and experienced, hoping that these help you grow more successfully every growing season!

01:09 How to choose the right plants for container gardening
02:20 How to maximize a small gardening space
02:28 Can you use outdoor soil for gardening?
03:21 Do you use compost in container gardening?
04:23 The key to container gardening
04:42 The importance of having a watering plan
04:56 How to water your plants when you’re on vacation
06:49 My apartment balcony garden watering tip!
07:35 Why fertilizing is necessary for container gardening
09:46 The top mistake beginner gardeners make
10:39 Getting the perfect light for your balcony garden
12:05 General lighting guidelines for gardening
13:40 First time doing balcony gardening? No worries, plant friends!

Espoma Organic products mentioned:
Potting Mix – https://www.espoma.com/product/espoma-organic-potting-soil-mix/
Bio-tone Starter – https://www.espoma.com/product/bio-tone-starter-plus/
Mushroom Compost Blend – https://www.espoma.com/product/mushroom-compost/
Land & Sea Gourmet Compost – https://www.espoma.com/product/land-sea-gourmet-compost/
Grow! All Purpose Plant Food – https://www.espoma.com/product/grow/
Tomato! Tomato & Vegetable Food – https://www.espoma.com/product/tomato/
Garden-tone Herb & Vegetable Food – https://www.espoma.com/product/garden-tone/

Check out this related Growing Joy episode:
‘Container Gardening 101’ – https://growingjoywithmaria.com/epicgardening/

Order Growing Joy: The Plant Lover’s Guide to Cultivating Happiness (and Plants): https://read.macmillan.com/lp/growing-joy/

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I have been balcony container gardening for probably 5 years now and I have learned a lot through trial and error plant friends so today I’ve put together my top five common mistakes I’ve made I’ve seen other gardeners make in hopes to save you from some tears the tears that I’ve shed in order to help you have a thriving Garden this summer on your balcony in containers in small spaces stay tuned because the last tip of the five is definitely the most embarrassing growing Jo hi plant friends I’m Maria I’m your new best plant friend and I’m here to help you care for plant successfully and more importantly grow Joy while doing so I’m so excited to make this video for you today in partnership with the SPO organic going over the top five gardening mistakes that I see for people who grow in containers on patios patio balcony gardening is a beast of its own there are a lot of factors that apply specifically just to patio gardeners that I want to go over with you so you don’t mistakenly avoid them and then fail and then be sad and then maybe not Garden anymore I would never want that to happen so let’s get you growing successfully tip number one is choose the right varieties of plants that you want to grow when you’re at the Garden Center these are usually going to be labeled as either micro dwarf dwarf or patio or maybe container varieties these are plants that have been cultivated over the years to grow smaller and more compact so you can successfully grow them in containers for example I’m growing patio baby eggplant it’s an eggplant plant that is smaller and grows small little eggplants it’ll also kind of Trail over the side of the pot I’m growing tidy treats cherry tomato it’s going to be a prolific cherry tomato plant but it’s going to grow only like a couple a feet tall you can grow smaller flowers if you’re growing zenas you’re going to want to choose the varieties that only get like 10 or 12 inches tall instead of the ones that can get four feet tall usually you can tell on the label if the label doesn’t have like a tidy treat or a dwarf variety or patio on it you could also turn the label around and just see how tall the plant gets and that will help inform you you’re going to struggle if you have a small balcony to grow a really epic tomato plant like a sweet 100 that could totally take over your entire balcony and then you’re not going to have any more space to grow anything else so sticking with the dwarf smaller varieties is going to allow you to grow more and a more diverse amount of food and flowers for you to enjoy all summer mistake number two I see a lot being made is not picking the right potting mix so obviously if you’re growing in containers don’t put outdoor soil in your containers it’s too water locked too clay heavy it’s going to have all sorts of weird stuff in it but it’s overwhelming sometimes when you go to the garden center and there’s like a whole shelf of potting mixes and soils and composts and fertilizers and you don’t really know what to choose so if you’re gardening in containers I’m going to recommend you do a spoma organic potting mix you’re going to want to look for a bagged potting mix that is used to growing in containers when you grow in containers the potting mix can get compacted so you want to make sure it’s air rated it’s got stuff like perlite and wood bark and all sorts of cool things as bomma has them all to keep air in the soil as much as water because Roots need air and water in order to thrive and grow strong so the plants can grow lots of leaves and lots of fruit and flowers for you as well when you’re looking at composts in containers I’m not throwing a ton of compost in the container for the first round but if I have this container I grow in it I’m putting potting mix and I’m putting biotone this is a starter plant food so when I plant up my container I put the potting mix in I put a little bit of this biotone starter plant food it helps prevent transplant loss it helps the roots absorb more water and water faster then next year I’m going to use compost to amend this soil a little bit so when you’re gardening in containers there’s only plants only have the amount of soil in the container to absorb all of the nutrients so once they absorb the nutrients in the existing soil it’s not as nutrient Rich so you can amend this with a little bit of compost it’ll help kind of turn it around and reinvigorate the soil for your next year of plants you can also top dress with compost if you want I like using a Spore organic mushroom compost in my containers because I find it’s the least smelly of all composts their land and sea compost is also really amazing but the key key key for container gardening is picking the Right Mix that’s going to go in here don’t buy a bag that says garden soil and put it in here don’t buy a bag that says raised bed planter mix or you know top soil and put it in here you want potting mix for containers mistake number three I see is not having a watering plan you are making a commitment to these plants this is not a oneandone bouquet of flowers for me I’m in zone six I’m going to be tending to these plants June July August and September so you need to figure out a way that you can sustainably water your plants and potentially have to go on summer vacation and still have your plants be watered and fed there’s two different ways you can do this number one I love self-watering Planters these three Planters are self-watering Planters they have a water reservoir in the bottom and they bottom water the plants so I can top water them if I want or I can use this water reservoir that will bottom water for them they also have a drainage plug so if it rains the excess water will come out the bottom so don’t no fear about that if you’re not going to go this route for the last four Summers I grew in grow bags I didn’t have self-watering Planters but here’s a hack that I learned so if you have more than one grow bag you’re going to need probably more than one watering can have two watering cans and believe me these are not fancy I bought these at the Dollar Store have two watering cans so while I’m watering my plants with this watering can this will be in the sink filling up when this is over when I’m out of water here this will be full I’ll go grab it I’ll put this in the sink and then I’ll come water here so it’s just an easy easier and faster way to get all of your plants watered I also suggest watering in the morning before it gets too hot it’s beautiful it’s a beautiful time in the morning to have a mindful moment have some peace with your plants put your phone down but make sure that you have a consistent watering schedule ideally two watering cans or self-watering Planters because the saddest thing that could ever happen to you plant friends is you work hard on a beautiful tomato plant your tomato plant gets this big you’re so proud of it it’s setting fruit you go away for the weekend you forget to have a plant sitter come and water it or you know you don’t have it in a self-watering planter and that tomato plant shrivels up and all the fruit fall off it has happened to me it is so painful I’m not going to lie I might have cried when that happened don’t let it happen to you make a watering plan okay and one more watering thing plant friends this is very specific if you are in an apartment complex and you have balconies above and below you particularly below you be mindful when you’re watering your plants if you’re Watering your plants make sure that the water isn’t spilling over and accidentally giving your neighbor a shower that they don’t want maybe they don’t want a ton of water on their balcony or maybe the passers by in my first apartment in New York City I was on the fourth floor and multiple times because I was a New Yorker who didn’t care about about anyone else back in the day I’ve much I’m much more involved now I was watering my herbs and I totally sprinkled passerbys on the street so be mindful of the people around you of your surroundings and help everyone grow joy as you’re growing Joy alongside them all right mistake number four this is a big one for me I didn’t do this for the first couple of years and I regret it is remembering to fertilize your plants in containers so here’s why fertilizing is so important for container plants sometimes arguably even more so than plants that are in ground I’m growing these flowers in a grow bag with a finite amount of soil right so like I talked about before these plants when they absorb the water in the soil or in the potting are going to also absorb the nutrients that are with the potting mix to help them grow big and strong after they absorb the nutrients there’s no like infinite amount of soil that someone that a plant would have in a normal Garden to replenish the nutrients that they need they can’t just keep growing their Roots farther and farther out to get the nutrients that they need so it’s our responsibility to fertilize and replenish the soil with nutrients so throughout the gardening season you’re going to go in probably once month depending on what you’re growing and fertilize there’s a couple of different ways you can do this aomo organic makes it extremely simple like I said so when you plant the plants up you’re going to use their biotone starter plant food that’s what’s going to get the plants started and then depending on on what you’re growing and depending on how you like to fertilize you have a couple of options if you like liquids you can take one of their liquid fertilizers the cap is the measuring you put this in your watering can and you water your plants or you can use their granular options this is what I like to use you take some granules you sprinkle the granules all over the soil and then every time the plant gets watered the granules you know liquefy and go into the soil and replenish and give the plants the nutrients that they need espoma has a long line of fertilizers they’re called their tones so Garden tone is a great General fertilizer for a garden bag that might have multiple things but they have a flower tone they have a rose tone they have tomato tone right for your tomato plants so they have these fertilizers that are tinkered specifically for whatever plants you’re growing to help set those plants up for Success so do your research depending on what you’re growing they have a fertilizer for you and then make sure you’re doing it throughout the season to set your plants up for Success all season long and not just in the beginning next up is save your plant tags oh my gosh one of my first Year’s balcony gardening I bought this incredible micro dorf tomato plant that I swear to you probably put off 300 delicious yellow tomatoes and it was maybe this big I loved it all summer and I forgot to save the plant tag and the next year I could not for the life of me figure out what tomato it was so save your plant tags either put them in the planter with you or if aesthetically you don’t want like a jumble of a bunch of different plant tags just save them put them in a cupboard for the summer and you can either get like uniform wooden sticks or beautiful you know ceramic labels whatever you want and write them out so you have a uniform athetic or just save them and know hey what was the name of this type of oregano I was growing let me go find it in the stack of plants that I have and last but not least arguably the most embarrassing one but it’s not embarrassing because what I like to say is you don’t know what you don’t know but a lot of balcony gardeners often mistake the amount of light that their plants can get on their balcony for a variety of reasons that is very specific to people who have balconies so if you’re in an apartment complex kind of like I mentioned before you might have a balcony that has a balcony above you right that balcony might cast shade on your balcony so if you have a balcony that has 247 shade you’re not going to be able to grow edible plants like you want to unless you make some adjustments maybe your balcony railing if you have a southern facing exposure the balcony railing when the sun is over there might cast a shadow on your plants right and also you have to understand your ex not just your exposure but if you have obstructions right so when I lived in New York City and I had a balcony I had southern-facing balconies but I had a building in front that blocked the sun right maybe you have large trees I’m lucky that my balcony has unobstructed views of the mountains and of the sun my plants get tons of sun but if you have a building if you have a balcony if you have a railing there are lots or a tree and you got to be careful with trees because sometimes trees the deciduous trees you get light in the winter but then you don’t get light when they Leaf out and then block the Sun so you have to be a super sleuth with your lighting some general rules of thumbs with lighting Southern facing is the strongest for the Northern Hemisphere East uh Western is the second strongest because the sun rises in the East it’s a little bit gentler as it moves across the sky it gets a little bit stronger in the West for me personally that’s West and that’s East so I get very gentle light in the morning because actually my house casts a little bit of a shadow onto this balcony but then by noon the sun is shining directly on the planet and then from noon to 8: in the summer because the sun doesn’t set until 8 my plants are getting 8 hours of exposed light but if I had a you know a building over there or if I had a big tree right here for the most of the time that the sun was in the west it would be blocking my plants so you have to really take a minute get out your phone see where your exposure is every phone has a compass on it see where is South where is East where is West where is North if you have a northern balcony it’s going to be harder for you to grow edible plants because Northern Exposure is a lot lower light than Southern Exposure so get your compass out and then get your eyeballs out now that I know where my exposures are see what might be blocking the sun see what isn’t blocking the Sun and then when you understand that you can make choices for what to grow if you have lots of light you’re going to have the most opportunity to grow food if you don’t have a lot of light Lett uses and some tender herbs can be a little bit lower light tolerant but depending on your situation you can do Google we have tons of podcast episodes for you all about about balcony gardening all about container gardening lowlight gardening highlight gardening scroll our 240 episodes of podcasts and YouTube videos at your leisure and I know I said it was embarrassing but don’t be embarrassed I mean there’s a lot of stuff about gardening that we don’t know intuitively especially if you’re living in an urban environment when I started balcony gardening I was a total plant killer I thought that I had to water my plants only in the morning or only at night I thought all sorts of weird things about my plants I didn’t fertilize I made a lot of these mistakes so no matter where you are in your gardening Journey don’t feel bad plant friend that’s the beauty of gardening it is a lifelong Hobby and every season we get to get better every season we get to make mistakes and then learn from them every season we get to grow amazing herbs amazing flowers amazing Tomatoes it’s the best hobby ever I hope these mistakes helped you please learn from them please do as I say not as I do sometimes thank you again to espa organic for sponsoring this video definitely use their amazing lines of potting mixes Gard soils composts fertilizers no matter how you Garden raised beds containers in ground they have the potting mix soil fertilizer everything you need to grow happy healthy robust Plants Plus they’re an awesome company and I hope this summer you keep growing Joy