How to Grow Herbs on an Apartment Balcony?
It’s an excellent idea to use your apartment balcony to grow plants and herbs. Having a herb garden on the balcony provides you with essential herbs and useful herbs that can also used in your daily cooking. These herbs can also be used in home remedies.
When you’re preparing to grow a garden on your balcony you should check some relevant factors such as the direction of sunlight, How much sunlight is available on your balcony?, and Which type of herb plants you want to grow? And finally, How to harvest and water your plants?
Growing herbs on your balcony is a great idea to make your balcony beautiful in a natural way. The first thing you will need to start growing your own herbs, is a small area on your apartment balcony . There are some main factors to growing plants on your balcony.
Table of Contents
Availability of Sunlight on your Balcony
You can plant and grow many different kinds of herbs on your balcony. The availability of sunlight on your balcony is the most important factor to grow herbs. Most plants and herbs need direct sunlight for 4 to 6 hours a day. Take a look at the table below to find the sunlight requirements for your desired herb.
| HERBS REQUIRING FULL SUN | HERBS REQUIRING PARTIAL SUN |
| Oregano | Parsley |
| Rosemary | Violet |
| Sage | Soapwort |
| Summer | Sweet Woodruff |
| Savory | Tansy |
| Tarragon | Sweet Cicely |
| Thyme | Wintergreen |
| Yarrow | Nasturtium |
| Catnip | Garlic |
| Caraway | Lemon Balm |
| Calendula | Mint |
| Borage | Marjoram |
| Basil | Lemon Verbena |
| Arnica | Aloe |
| Anise | Bee Balm |
| Mustard | Chamomile |
| Lavender | Echinacea |
| Hyssop | Chives |
| Fennel | Comfrey |
| Dill | Chervil |
| Cilantro | Lovage |
However, with some apartments, the balconies may be shaded or covered by nearby buildings or neighbor’s balconies. Therefore, you first should check the amount of sunlight time you receive on your balcony before starting your garden. Some herbs and plants require more sun while others can easily survive in a short period of sunlight.
Decide On Seed or Starters
Once you have decided to grow herbs on your balcony, you will first need to buy the packets of seeds, the seeds are sold in many places and can be purchased from Amazon, Walmart or even your local supermarket or garden center. It is an exciting thing to grow plants from seeds. However, it can also be challenging for some, and for those people I would recommend buying a starter plant.
Grab the Gear
These are products that I currently use and would highly recommend you would begin your herb garden with. I purchase all these products on Amazon.
The soil that I use for all my herb gardening, is the Professional Grower Mix Soil. I find them to be one of the best and I have had nothing but good success using this brand. It is very affordable and provides your plants with the nutrients they need.
For people with minimal space in their home or apartment I would recommend the Saratoga Home Herb Pots with Tray Set.
For apartments with very little sunlight I would recommend the Mindful Design LED Indoor Herb Garden.
I currently use LA JOLIE MUSE Flower Pot Garden Planters for my herbs. These pots are very nice quality, and can be used for indoor and durable enough for outdoor use.
Decide what kind of containers you want
You can grow herbs in different pots or a wide and long planter type box that may hold everything. Each way is suitable and fine; however, if you want to choose the long planter type boxes, remember that do not overcrowd the seeds.
Water Enough
Before starting seeding, check some important things. First, you want to make sure you prepared the pots and soil for the seeding. Add water to the soil for the proper moisture before seeding, and check what kind of soil is right for the seed,: dry or moist.
After putting the seeds into the pots, regularly check the condition of soil and plant. Regularly check the condition of your plants, and make sure that they get enough water. You can also check this from the edges of plants leaves. If you notice the edges wilt or brown, then you will need to give the plant more water.
Protect your windowsill
If you are thinking of putting these plants onto your home window, I would recommend you put something under the plant, so that it catches the water and dirt that drain out from the bottom. If you forget to do this, you can really end up with a big mess when watering.
Understand Harvesting
The most important and difficult part of growing herbs is knowing the correct time for harvesting. All herbs are different and vary in growth time; therefore, the harvesting time is also different. For example, if you grow mint and oregano, these can be harvested from any part of the plant by sniping the leaves.
However, when it comes to basil, make sure that you snip the leaves from the top of the plant instead of the bottom.
Choose the Right Container
To grow the different herbs on your balcony, choose the right containers for the garden.
Taking upon considerations such as the following:
- Types of herbs you select and quantity of herbs
- The size of the pot or container. If the size of the container is large enough, it will enhance the growth production of roots. On the other hand, if the container’s size is small, the plant grows and quickly becomes root bound. These conditions reduce the top growth of the plant
- The space available for the plants or how much space is allocated to the plants.
- Your experience with apartment gardening. Whether all your herbs survive outside in winters or not.
- The container must be adjustable for indoor in the winter season.
- You can use any kind of container that is adjustable on your apartment balcony. The most important factor is sunlight, which plays a fundamental role in the growth of plants. If the sunlight is not available, plants dry out very quickly.
Herbs for a Balcony Garden
Basil
Basil is a useful herb in cooking. The price of basil is not cheap in grocery stores anymore. You can easily grow this herb in your apartment balcony. You can plant this herb in an organic soil pot where it grows well
Sunlight: To grow basil you need almost 5 to 6 hours of sunlight a day. It does not survive in the cold, so put it indoors in the winter season.
Chives
Chives is a herb that grows faster than other herbs. When this herb grows, it becomes 10 to 12 inches tall. It can grow in the outdoors as well as the indoor atmosphere.
Sunlight: Chives can grow well in the sunny windowsill. It also does well in damp soil.
Mint
Mint can grow fast. Therefore, a pot is a good option for growing mint. It can be used in cooking items in daily routines.
Sunlight: Mint can also grow in the shade; however, morning sunlight positively affects its growth. Don’t use dry soil for mint; it grows well in ample moisture.
Oregano
The oregano plant can grow well in any outdoor atmosphere, this is because it grows well in heat and full sunlight. If a vast amount of sunlight is not available, then you should choose Cuban oregano. You can place this oregano indoors near a windowsill. It spread quickly, so the growing of oregano is suitable for a pot.
Sunlight: Place the pot or planter with the oregano in a place where sunlight can reach easily and for the whole day. Give water when the soil looks dry; it will not grow well if you over water it
Parsley
This greenish herb is more useful to add flavors to your food. The growth of this herb is slow. It is costly at grocery stores, and can easily be planted and grown at home. When you want to harvest it, make sure not to snip too many leaves simultaneously.
Sunlight: Like the other herbs, mint and chives, parsley can grow in the shade it does not need a lot of sunlight. It is an adaptive plant. It can survive in sunny areas or shady indoor areas. It grows well in moist soil. So do not put it in dry soil.
Rosemary
When it comes to planting herbs at home, do not forget about rosemary. It is a low maintenance plant. You can also grow this herb in outdoor areas. The scent of rosemary spreads when sunlight hits it. You can place it on your balcony’s deck. It grows fast in pots..
Sunlight: Rosemary needs 6 to 8 hours of sunlight in a day to thrive indoors. It does not grow in a lot of water. It grows well in dry and moist kinds of soil.
