For city dwellers, a balcony is an additional opportunity to enjoy the beauty and aroma of plants. As soon as warm spring days come, thousands and thousands of townspeople have a desire to create something new and unique on their balcony. One option is to use climbing plants.
Basic Rules.
Where to begin? First of all, for the arrangement of a balcony garden, it is necessary to carry out simple preliminary work:
- secure the flower boxes and supports firmly to the floor or balcony railing;
- do not forget about water drainage trays to protect passers-by from unexpected drops;
- for the south side, choose light-colored wooden or plastic boxes so that the roots of the plants do not overheat in the sun;
- dark boxes are more suitable for the north side;
- at the bottom of each box, put a layer of drainage (expanded clay, gravel, pieces of charcoal, coarse river sand) 3-4 cm thick.
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Preparing the soil.
Ready-made soil can be purchased at your nearest garden center or flower shop.… Now there is a large selection of ready-made primers for almost all types of ornamental plants.
But it’s best to make up the potting mix yourself. Need to take garden land, peat and coarse river sand in a ratio of 4: 2: 1.
Not suitable for balcony boxes, soil consisting of only one pure peat. With excessive watering, plants can die from a lack of oxygen in the substrate and decay of the roots. And overdrying the substrate is also dangerous: peat literally draws water out of plants, and it is almost impossible to save them.
It is better to sanitize the soil. Disinfection from plant pathogens is carried out by spilling the soil with a hot dark pink solution of potassium permanganate. If you have been growing flowers on the balcony for several years, then it is advisable to replace at least the upper third of the soil in the box with fresh substrate annually.
Add to the ground fertilizer, to provide plants with nutrition and facilitate caring for them, reducing the amount of feeding.
Flowers on the balcony
Farmer Burea-Uinsurance.com re-ality
Sowing seeds.
The easiest way is to sow summer seeds directly into balcony boxes and pots. If the spring is early and warm, you will be able to admire the flowering already in June. The advantage of this method is. that the flowers immediately find themselves in a permanent place, are hardened with natural fluctuations in ambient temperature, under winds and rains, develop faster, receiving full-fledged sunlight.
Immediately after sowing, water the soil in boxes with warm water and cover with foil or light-colored covering material – this will protect the seeds from the cold and accelerate their germination.
With the emergence of seedlings, remove the shelter during the day, and it is better to cover the seedlings at night, because return frosts are very possible in spring.
Some tips for plant care.
You need to water the balcony flowers with warm, settled water.… It is necessary to fill the bottles and leave them in the sun – by the evening the water for irrigation is ready.
Young plants need fertilizing, especially nitrogen. Sometimes plant growth is slow and the seedlings look weak. In such cases, feeding with a liquid fertilizer intended for flower seedlings helps. For flowering plants, fertilizing with liquid fertilizer is effective, designed for long and abundant flowering. Top dressing is carried out every 7-10 days.
Flowers on the balcony
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Which plants to prefer?
With the help of climbing plants, you can create a variety of architectural forms: curtains at the ends of the balcony or “curtains” around the perimeter, a green office with a flower roof or a blooming pyramid. The main thing is to make supports for climbing plants. They can be made from thin, strong cords, pulled tightly over a frame made of strips or metal rods. Sweet peas form a blooming pyramid if you make a hut for it from twigs placed in a large pot and tied on top with wire or twine.
Nasturtium it is better to sow along the outer edge of the boxes. Tie some of the lashes to the cords reinforced at the top. Flowering will begin 40-50 days after sowing and will continue until frost. On the southern balconies in hot summer and insufficient watering nasturtium can bloom in August… Therefore, it is worthwhile to play it safe, sow several nests of 2-3 seeds in late May-early June. then flowering will last until the end of the season.
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Ipomoea (farbitis) sow at the same time as nasturtium seeds (in April-May), in the second line, closer to the inner side of the balcony. It will bloom in mid-June-early July and will bloom until frost. Using varieties of morning glory with flowers of different colors, you can create spectacular openwork balcony walls, and your garden will be closed from prying eyes and hot sunlight; this is especially true for southern balconies. It is only necessary to provide support in the form of vertical cords around the perimeter of the balcony.
Farmer Burea-Uinsurance.com Ralf Warner
Sweet pea Is one of the most popular vertical gardening plants. Tall varieties, reaching a height of 2 m or more, need support. There are undersized varieties with a shoot length of 60-90 cm.The height of dwarf varieties does not exceed 40 cm.
Sweet peas prefer sunny locations. Blooms 90-100 days after sowing and blooms until frost. It is better to sow sprouted seeds in May immediately to a permanent place, because the plant does not tolerate transplanting well.
To make the sweet peas more lush and bloom well, pinch the top above the third pair of leaves.
Farmer Burea-Uinsurance.com tpholland
Fire red beans (ornamental) – one of the best lianas. Modern varieties of beans have flowers colored not only in red, but also in white, pink, cream tones, there are also two-color ones. The plant is thermophilic and shade-tolerant, although it blooms poorly in the shade. Branched bean stalks are climbed along supports to a height of 4 m. Its flowing shoots in hanging baskets look no less impressive.
Ornamental beans thrive in a limited amount of soil, which is especially important when grown on the balcony.
Bean flowering occurs 60-70 days after sowing. For lush and long flowering, it is necessary to remove faded inflorescences and green pods with seeds as early as possible. Boiled ornamental beans are edible, raw beans are poisonous!
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Echinocystis (wild cucumber) rarely seen on city balconies, although it produces the most potent greenery. In August, this liana blooms with fluffy clusters of yellowish color, and in September, original fruits appear on it, not green hedgehogs, from which black seeds fall out in a shape similar to pumpkin seeds.
The undoubted plus of this plant is also that it can be sown in boxes before winter (in November). Sowing in winter is preferable, it gives guaranteed germination of echinocyst seeds, because they need freezing. If you sow seeds in early spring, not all will germinate. But next year, in April, you will find wild cucumber seedlings in the balcony boxes.
Farmer Burea-Uinsurance.com Algirdas
Japanese hops – an annual liana with fragrant flowers is an even rarer guest on the balconies. Its thin stems grow up to 2,5-3 m long. Seeds are sown in early May in a permanent place. Female flowers are small, collected in a pineal, drooping inflorescence; male flowers are yellow-green, paniculate inflorescence.
Hops bloom in the second half of summer. This liana beautifully braids lattices and supports of any shape. The hop cones are harvested, dried and used to flavor the air.
Farmer Burea-Uinsurance.com Yoshikazu Takahira
Links to material:
- Garden and vegetable garden N 4/2005 – Hanging garden on the balcony.
