Indoor flowers on the balcony

Most houses have balconies, which can be a great place to relax if you decorate them with climbing and flowering plants.

Caring for such a "garden" is quite simple. Growing plants on the balcony should be in boxes. The length of such a box should be about 1 m, width - 25 cm, height - 22 cm. The boxes should be made of dry boards 2 cm thick, they should be planed on the outside and painted with oil paint of any color (usually green, brown or gray), Several holes should be made in the bottom of the box so that excess water can drain.

Boxes can be placed on the balcony floor. At the same time, three transverse rails must be placed under each of them so that the box is not placed with its bottom directly on the floor of the balcony. Each box, if it is placed on the outside of the balcony, must be firmly attached with a thick wire to the railing.

Fill the boxes with soil. You can take the usual loose, nutritious, garden soil. Well-rotted horse manure or leafy humus should be added to it. If the soil is very clay, one quarter of the total amount of coarse sand should be added. To improve the nutritional properties and structure of the soil, you can also add peat soil.

The soil in the boxes must be watered so that the water passes through. After 2-3 days, when the earth settles, you can start sowing or planting plants.

Flowering plants can be planted as small seedlings (with a few leaves), larger seedlings and mature plants (with buds or even flowers). The planting technique is as follows: we make the desired hole with a peg, hold the plant in our left hand, carefully lower the roots into the hole so that their ends are wrapped up, and cover them with earth. After that, fingers compress the ground around the plant well. Planted seedlings should be well watered and, until they grow, cover from the sun (at least with newspapers).

Many plants can simply be sown in the ground

Before sowing, the surface of the soil must be leveled and a furrow or separate holes of the desired depth should be made with a peg. Seeds are sown not densely; large seeds of peas, beans, etc. you can sow several grains in a hole. Too dense sowing not only leads to excessive seed loss, but also adversely affects the development and growth of plants.

The sown seeds are covered with fine earth and watered. Next, you should keep the earth constantly moist, but not excessively, because then the seeds will not germinate, but will die. If the seedlings appeared too thick, then the extra plants are pulled out (they can be transplanted to another place).

When planting boxes, hanging plants should be placed in the first row, relatively tall plants should be planted in the second, climbing plants can be placed in the third.

What can be grown on the balcony in winter and summer

In advance, you should outline how best to arrange a balcony:

On the south or southeast or southwest side of the balconies, you can make a cozy green gazebo from climbing annuals or perennials to protect from the sun.

It is better to surround the northern balconies with upright and hanging flowering houseplants.

For the gazebo, you need to make a frame of narrow rails or pipes. The design of the gazebo will depend on the material available. It is only important that the frame is light and durable. Usually the frame is attached to the balcony and painted green with oil paint.

If we want the gazebo to quickly become covered with greenery, then it must be surrounded by annual climbing plants, of which ornamental beans can be recommended. This plant is up to 4 m high, grows quickly and in the first half of summer blooms profusely with beautiful tassels of predominantly red flowers. It is necessary to sow beans in early May directly into the ground at a distance of 10-12 cm and to a depth of 2-3 cm. It is better to put 2 seeds in a hole, which must be soaked in water a day before sowing.

Sweet peas with careful care grows up to 2-2.5 m high. Sweet peas need fertile loose soil. This plant needs to be watered and fertilized frequently. Particularly useful are light additions of wood ash. Sweet peas should be planted in a sunny position. For more abundant and long flowering in peas, all faded flowers should be cut out and fruits should not be allowed to form. Sowing is carried out at the end of April or at the beginning of May directly into the soil at a distance of 8-10 cm, to a depth of 2-2.5 cm, moistened with seeds daily before planting. It is better to put two seeds in a hole.

Balcony flowers

Most indoor plants can also be used to decorate a balcony.

• You can not put indoor plants on the balcony in ordinary clay flowerpots. In such flowerpots, the earth in the sun is very overheated, dries quickly.
• If the plant is in a small pot, it can be dug into a box of soil. At the same time, it is necessary to ensure that the flowerpot is firmly dug into the ground so that there is no free space under it.
• When the flowerpot is large, then you need to take a barrel or box larger than it. Pour earth on the bottom of such a barrel or box, put a flowerpot and sprinkle it with earth on the sides to the very top.