Garden Balcony Tips | Lifestyle

We moved into our first home just over a year ago now, I've written a few posts about it but some of you may not know is that our home is actually a Coach House so it's basically somewhere between a flat and a house. We have the entire property, we don't have anyone either side or above us but we have car ports directly underneath the property meaning everything is on first level as opposed to ground level!

The only downside to our home in my opinion is that we don't have a garden and this may some as a bit of a surprise to you but I actually really love plants and a little bit of gardening! A plus side however is that we do have a little balcony which has meant that I've had to get a little creative with my plants! I wanted to share some tips in case someone else was in a similar situation and didn't quite know where to begin.

Firstly, I think one of the most important things to consider is how much sun your balcony area gets during the day. I say this because our balcony is in sunshine literally all day which means we can't really go for plants that need shaded areas because they simply won't thrive where they are! In recent months I have opted for Snapdragons because they love direct sunlight so I know with proper care (lots of watering they should be pretty happy)

Think about the type of plants you buy, whether they are going to be low maintenance or require a bit of time and training (trailing plants for example). I bought a Lavender bush, for a few reasons really one being bumble bees however I realised that Lavender is actually a pretty hardy plant and quite low maintenance in the sense that there was time I forgot to water the thing and this year he has come back really happy and healthy so far!

The primroses in the first picture died on us so quickly it was really disappointing but I knew this would happen because it said they would only flower until May so it's pretty important to check the blossom months if you want to have pretty flowers. In fact, it wasn't just that the flowers dropped of the plants actually died so I'm not sure they were too happy where they were so we decided to plant some Snapdragons in their place and they are thriving! If you want to keep your flowers looking fresh then pruning is really important, some plants only need the dead petals to be removed and that's really simple, a gentle tug and you're done! Whereas my lavender, I literally don't touch until late summer when the flowers have died then I trim the lavender stems right back! If you don't know how to prune certain things then there are loads on online tutorials or ask some family members if they are into gardening.

I'm lucky because I know exactly what types of flowers I want and it's just from past experience and other people's gardens that I do know what they are called but I think if you're struggling to know what you may like then pre-made planters might be a great option. We stumbled across ours in Homebase and it was just full of different types of beautiful flowers and it just looked great, the bees love it!

I think it doesn't matter how big your area is outside, having little bursts of colours around it can't help but make you smile and the bees will thank you for sure.