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Balcony ledge crowded with geraniums in terracotta pots, two hanging pots on the railing and ivy covering the wall behind
Small spaces7 min read

Balcony gardening in containers: what actually grows

Pot sizes, feeding intervals and weight limits from the RHS, worked out for a rented balcony with no outside tap and nobody home all day.

On a sunny balcony you can grow tomatoes, chillies and dwarf French beans in pots. On a shady one, salad leaves, mint and radishes. The two things that decide whether any of it survives are pot size, because small pots dry out by lunchtime while everyone's at work, and how much weight the balcony can safely carry, because a big pot of wet compost is heavier than it looks. Get those two right and the plants mostly look after themselves between a Sunday feed and a daily can of water.

Everything below assumes a balcony with no tap, so every litre comes through the flat in a can. That shapes most of the decisions.

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