Herbs have been a part of mankind since ancient times - and are particularly en vogue again today. You don't need a large monastery garden to provide yourself with the diverse aromatic wonders - a balcony can also be ideal!
Herbs also thrive in pots
"Only" a balcony? Because of "only"!
The balcony is generally regarded as a minimalist substitute garden - and accordingly also has a somewhat thankless compromise character. Certainly it does not offer as many possibilities as a large garden, both in terms of relaxation and in terms of horticultural design. Nevertheless, it also has some advantages, also from a gardening point of view, which you may not realize so quickly:
- The balcony has a manageable size - which also means less potential for chaos!
- With sidewalls, it can provide a sheltered microclimate
- A lot of stone as a frame material serves as heat storage
- It can be accessed quickly and directly from the house - no long walks to the harvested crops!
So if you only have a balcony or a terrace available as an outdoor living space, you don't need to do without the cultivation of delicacies that enrich the kitchen - herbs in particular are even ideal for cultivation on the balcony and terrace - for the reasons mentioned! Because many of them don't need a lot of space and therefore a lot of heat - plus you're probably more willing to harvest them for cooking every day if you're only a stone's throw away from them…
Growing herbs on balconies and patios
Of course, it is not really possible to create a bed on a balcony - above all, there is usually a lack of space and, of course, soil. If you still want to create a bed with different herbs together, the following clever alternatives are available:
- mini raised bed
- Group of beds made of wooden boxes
mini raised bed
If you build a mini raised bed yourself, you can optimally adapt it to your balcony architecture in terms of size and shape. In addition, you have all your favorite herbs in one place, which can be reached without bending down for care and harvest. You can also provide them with a deep substrate. In this respect, a balcony raised bed is particularly suitable for nutritious types of herbs such as chives and wild garlic, lovage, basil or mint.
bed group
Another idea is to put together a "bed group" from several wooden boxes. You can group them all close together to form a visually large bed or arrange them individually. The advantage of this is that you can cultivate herbs with different location and substrate requirements separately from each other. For example, you can plant a mini box bed with local herbs such as parsley, chervil or chamomile and one with Mediterranean herbs such as thyme, rosemary or oregano.
location
When it comes to the location, the possibilities for variation on the balcony and terrace are of course limited - above all, you depend on the orientation of your mini garden. Of course, a southern orientation is best. Because most herbs need a lot of sun to thrive.
The relatively small micro-space usually surrounded by stone material also has a positive effect on a south-facing balcony or terrace - Mediterranean herbs in particular offer ideal conditions with plenty of warmth and protection from the weather.
If your balcony tends to face north, growing southern herbs is of course rather difficult. On the other hand, you can also grow varieties that don’t need as much sun, with wonderful aromas and a wide range of possible uses: These include typical forest herbs such as wild garlic, woodruff or mint.
Refined and decorative alternatives to beds
Instead of using a functional herb bed, you can of course also work differently - and at the same time get a lot of decorative value out of your herb culture. In general, the alternative is planting in pots - but there are a variety of options:
- window boxes
- Individual flower pots
- combi pots
window boxes
They are the somewhat more mundane and uncomplicated variant. They are easy to fix to the balcony railing, are at a height that is free of buckling and thus function as a kind of small raised beds, only with less substrate volume. The disadvantage is that you are virtually fixed on one location - so the selection of herbs has to be largely adapted to the prevailing conditions there. In addition, balcony boxes (€109.00) naturally only have a moderate aesthetic value.
Individual flower pots
On the other hand, you can get something more decorative out of a herb culture in several flowerpots - especially if you use classic pots made of terracotta, maybe in different sizes and designs. A varied placement with pots on the balcony wall, others on the floor and others on the balcony table can loosen up the small herbal oasis even more. From a practical, harvest-oriented point of view, with such arrangements you naturally have full freedom in the choice of location.
combi pots
Combi pots are also very pretty and compact at the same time. With its large main pot and adjoining side troughs, you can cultivate different herbs in one place and still offer them different substrates - the large main pot with its pot volume is ideal for varieties that require humus, while typical Mediterranean herbs can snuggle up in the side troughs.