Newsletter Articles
Beautiful Plants for Your Balcony or Patio When You Don’t Have Yard Space
Written by Kelsey W.
Space often comes at a premium for those of us who choose to live in the busier locales of Southern California. However, lack of access to a large yard or an acre of land doesn’t mean you’re out of luck when it comes to filling your home with greenery.
Even if you only have a balcony that’s three feet wide and a few feet deep, there are a bevy of lovely plants just waiting to come home with you to beautify your space. These plants may grow slowly, which means you won’t have to re-home them for several years, even if they have the potential to outgrow your balcony.
These plants will take up the ideal amount of space on your little condo patio, and they’ll be right at home when all you have is a few window planters hanging off the side of your apartment windows. There are plants to fit every space, especially those spaces that are quaint, cozy, and small.
Let’s explore some of the perfect plants for your small SoCal space, from little adorable houseplants to little plants that will love the small patch of earth outside your home. Let’s make your small space a quiet, peaceful retreat filled with new, space-saving plant friends.
Little Bushes for Your Tiny Outdoor Plot of Land
You may only have a small amount of land to work with outside your home, but there are plants you can use to beautify your yard, even if you only have a few feet to spare. One option you may want to pursue is a dwarf plant, which may have the same name as a plant you already know but have a smaller footprint than the regular-size version.
A few options that will thrive in SoCal include the dwarf pomegranate, which grows gorgeous orange flowers (no actual pomegranate fruit though, just to be clear) and the dwarf olive bush, which is an excellent drought-tolerant option and also grows well near the coast.
These small bushes are great for small lawns and will remain pretty small, growing to a total height of only three or four feet. Another excellent little bush for your outdoor space is the dwarf mock orange, which usually only grows a little over two feet tall and requires very little attention or pruning.
There are even dwarf varieties of citrus plants out there, too, which means you can actually grow a little orange, lime, or lemon tree outside, even if you only have a few feet of room. You can even grow a dwarf citrus plant in a pot as long as it has really good drainage and a big area around the roots.
Flowers That Love Patios and Small Beds
One of the best options when you don’t have a lot of space for growing is a flower garden. You can grow flowers in virtually anything, from pots to hanging planters to tiny little plots of soil. You can have one square foot of soil on the side of the entrance to your apartment and have enough room for a little grouping of happy little petunias or marigolds.
The petunias and marigolds will love a sunny spot, but if your little space is always shady, you can opt for impatiens, begonias, and peonies instead. You can cover your little flower bed with these cheerful flowers, or you can fill every available space on your balcony with pots full of these flowering beauties.
One thing to consider, too, is that some flowering plants are annuals, and some are perennials. If you enjoy changing the plants on your balcony every so often, consider annuals like marigolds or impatiens. If you’d rather have your plants for many years and see them flower every spring, choose perennials instead.
Also note that some annuals do tend to act like perennials in Southern California because we don’t tend to experience hard frosts and snow-covered hills everywhere, so don’t be surprised if the geraniums you plant in your hanging baskets last a decade, flowering year after year!
Try a Herb Garden for a Great-Smelling Balcony
One of the best options for growing a beautifully green balcony is filling it with herbs, which often love growing and thriving in containers. You can grow virtually any herb outside in Southern California, but you may need to move your herb garden inside for the winter if you live in one of our mountainous areas.
The great thing about herbs is that they remain small, so they’re a lush and beautiful addition to any small space, whether it’s the windowsill in your kitchen or the balcony off the living room. Most herbs are also really easy to grow as long as they have the following:
Sun:
Generally, most herbs will enjoy your small balcony when they receive at least four hours of sun each day, but most can tolerate up to eight hours in the summer. Herbs like mint, thyme, and rosemary will even grow in indirect light, so they’re your go-to plants if your balcony doesn’t get any direct sunlight.
One of the best reasons to grow your herbs in pots, too, is because you can rotate them and ensure they grow evenly on each side. Herbs have a habit of stretching as far as they can toward the sun, and they can start looking a bit uneven after a while.
Water:
One of the fun aspects of growing herbs is that they’re quite responsive to the care you give them. If you feed them, they’ll get big and bushy, and you’ll have many opportunities to trim them and use their wonderfully scented parts for your cooking recipes.
As far as water goes, your herbs will need regular water, and it’ll be really obvious when they’re thirsty because they’ll start to droop. Herbs like basil will start to shrivel up like a little old lady when they don’t have enough water, and it’s important that their soil is never parched.
Soil & Fertilizer:
Growing your herbs in pots gives you the opportunity to carefully choose their soil composition. Don’t worry, herbs aren’t fussy and don’t mind being moved, poked, and prodded. They’re not picky plants that will drop all their leaves in protest when all you you did was move them over a few inches!
As far as soil and fertilizer go, most herbs are really forgiving. The majority of herbs will enjoy growing in soil that won’t become waterlogged, even when you water regularly. You can occasionally and lightly fertilize your herbs, too, but you don’t need to stuff them to the gills with plant food.
Ensuring Native Plants Remain Happy in Containers
Sticking with native plants is a help to the local ecosystem, but sometimes it’s tough to grow native plants in containers, especially when many native plants enjoy quick-draining soil and are not likely to thrive in a container that remains soggy or wet.
You might assume that since all the plants you’ll select at your garden center will come in containers, they’ll fare just fine in containers at your home. In fact, some of those plants might start to decline over time because they can’t spread their roots and grow as they would in the ground.
The plants do just fine for a few years in containers but do eventually need to exit their containers and enjoy more space for optimum growth and health. However, if all you’ve got to work with is a cement slab outside your apartment or a balcony outside your condo, is it still possible to go with native plants?
Some of the most obvious choices here are succulents and cactuses, which thrive in containers for years, especially if they’re the slow-growing sort. However, even some succulents that grow in Southern California have a tendency to spread far and wide across whatever space they’re given.
The good news is that most succulents are quite tolerant of pruning, so you can keep just about any succulent from taking over your balcony by just keeping it pruned back on occasion. Cactuses and most succulents are also a great option for your balcony if you regularly forget you have plants and forget to water them for a month.
Just remember that cactuses, succulents, and most native SoCal plants don’t fare well in soggy soil, so the key here is to make sure that you water them regularly but not excessively. Well-draining soil and a pot with holes in it will keep your plants from getting waterlogged in their pots.
Tip: If you’re worried about the water from your pot dripping down onto a downstairs neighbor’s balcony, keep a plastic dish under the pot and simply pour the water out (perhaps into another plant) whenever you see the water collecting in the dish.
Create a Beautiful Balcony of Plants with Help from Green Thumb Nursery
You have so many beautiful options for decorating your balcony, and Green Thumb Nursery is here to help with all the advice, suggestions, and information you need, whether you have a tiny, shaded balcony on a north-facing wall or a long wrap-around porch at your condo. Drop by for inspiration and ideas for bringing new plants to your home.
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