Container Garden Watering & Windy Balcony Garden Tips

My balcony garden featured on Gardeners world. Today I’m sharing my container garden watering tips and my windy balcony garden tips. If you have a windy garden, I share my view on a windy urban garden and some planting solutions that may help. If you have a container garden my watering tips should help you have a more productive garden.

Useful Videos:

Mulching:

Sheep Wool Compost:

Refresh your soil:

Life on a windy balcony

00:00 Introduction
00:41 Watering. Step One: Growing Medium
02:51 Watering: Step Two: Container Choices
04:50 Watering: Step Three: Mulching
07:33 My Watering Disasters
11:48 Windy Garden Tips
17:06 Balcony Garden Compost Mulch

[Music] Welcome or welcome back to my channel. Today I’m going to be answering some of your most frequently asked questions. So, we’re going to be talking about watering on a balcony. We’re going to be talking about the wind and we’re also going to be going through some dayto-day struggles of balcony gardening. So, let’s get straight into it. [Music] When it comes to watering a container garden, there are many different things you need to think about before you pick up that watering can. The first step is to think about what is it that you are growing in. And what I mean by that is what’s your medium? Now, this is my channel. It’s a safe space. And I’m going to be honest with you guys. A lot of us know the benefits for using Pete free compost in terms of sustainability. But if we’re really really honest, I have found on my garden personally that Pete free compost can be a bit rubbish. And the reason for that is because a Pete free compost is missing the moss which is that moisture retaining element. So if you’re using a Pete free compost which doesn’t hold a lot of moisture and you have a rubbish watering schedule, well of course your plants are not going to do very well. So the very first step is to have the right growing medium. Now I’ve mentioned on this channel before I use a product called Daleoot which is a Pete free compost but it has sheep’s wool in it and that sheep’s wool acts as a water retention agent. So you could implement the same kind of thing in your space by adding in some sheep’s wool into your container or perhaps even adding in things like twigs and branches as part of the compost mix because those things will soak in some of that water which will allow the plant to access some of that water on a slightly drier day. Now if you want to know more about the sheep’s wool compost I actually have done a video on that. So I’m going to leave that in the description box below. [Music] Now, the next step to think about is what are you growing in? Now, along my balcony, I’ve got lots of different types of containers, but the type of container that you use can really affect your watering schedule. If you’re using something like a terra cotta pot, a terra cotta pot is really porous. That means it doesn’t retain the moisture in the soil. So if you combine a terra cotta pot with the wind, for example, which blows through your garden, that will take out some of the moisture, but then also that terra cotta pot will also not hold any moisture in that soil, which puts you at a double disadvantage. Whereas something like a plastic container is a lot better at retaining that moisture. So all the way through my garden, I have a mixture of the two. But another thing to consider is the color of your container because if you have black pots like I do, they absorb the heat and the sun rays which once again bakes your containers. Now some of you might really love older rustic looking industrialized containers that we see in show gardens, things like cen steel containers or uh just some steel containers. But once again, those metallic containers will be absorbing that heat once again drying out your pots. So you have to make a conscious decision when you’re selecting your pots so that you make the right choice for your space. Now, that doesn’t mean that if you have a terra cotta pot that you can’t use it. It just means that you have to remember that you’re going to have to water that a little bit extra. One thing you could do to mitigate those disadvantages using the terra cotta pots or the black pots or whatever is you could add in a layer of mulch. [Music] Mulching is a really great way of keeping moisture in your containers. Now, what I’ve been doing here on this garden is I’ve been using some of my homemade compost and using that as a mulch, but you could use something like straw. You could use something like wood chip and that helps to keep the moisture within the container. Now, if you’re not sure what mulch is or that whole process, I’ve got a whole video dedicated to mulch and I’m going to leave that in the description box below. Now along my garden, I use different techniques in different containers. My peie bush down here, for example, I use straw. And straw is a really great way of suppressing those weeds and keeping the moisture in those containers, but it also in time will break down and then replenish the nutrients in that container. Now, another way to help replenish the nutrients in that container and mulch is to use a technique called chop and drop. And essentially all that means is that as you are pruning your plant, all of that leaf litter, you then put down onto the surface of that container and then use that as a form of mulch instead. Just remember if you do do that, do not use a plant that has been infected with a fungus or some form of disease because you could then reinfect the plant or infect others. Now, I know that I am in a minority when it comes to loving punius, but for anyone who does enjoy punius, here is my biggest tip. Make sure to continuously dead head your pagunius. So when you are deadheading your punius, it can be really tempting to just pull out the petals like this and then be done with it. But this area here makes the seeds. So what you want to do is go right down to the base and then chop it off there once the patunia has finished flowering. There you go. And then you can just drop them back in. And that’s your chop and drop. [Music] Okay, I’m going to be so for real with you guys right now. I’ve made sure in my schedule this year to put in plenty of time to go to an event in London and then spend one day back in Manchester where I can come water the garden and then go off to the next event. I haven’t been good at that uh over the past couple of years, but the garden makes me happy. And when the garden is not happy, I can kind of feel like a mess. So, this year, I’ve made a conscious decision to make sure that I spend more time in the garden. However, I’m going to show you some signs in my garden that I’ve been doing a rubbish job at watering, even though I know better. One way to find out when it’s time to water your containers is to double check the soil. So, what you can do is you can do the knuckle test. You put your finger in and then when it gets down to your first knuckle, if it’s still dry, it means that actually this container needs a water. So, that’s how to tell when to water. Now, if you look at the plant, you can see it is not very happy at all. But when I did put my finger in, it’s moist here. If I do the knuckle test closer to the base of the plant, it’s dry as a bone. So again, I’ve been lazy watering. I’ve been watering here when I need to really get that water into the base of the plant. Okay, let’s look at this container here. So, this one has got my fox gloves in it. It’s got GMs. As you can see, the fox glove is doing phenomenally well. It’s so big. The leaves are huge. So much so that it’s overshadowing the GM here. Now, that you can see that there’s this little gap here, and that is where I’ve been watering. And so, when I put my fingers in, the soil is moist. But if you look at the GM, you’ll see actually it’s dried up. And here’s this echanatia. You can tell that the echanatia is not happy because it’s bent over. It’s drooping. Now, although this part of the pot is moist, the outside edges of this pot are bone dry. And so this is a reminder to yourself that when you’re watering, rather than just pouring the water directly into this one spot, when you’re watering, make sure the water the whole area so that the water is evenly distributed. Now, I know some of you wanted an update on the scotch bonnet peppers. As you can see, they’re doing really well. But here’s a mistake I made when I did this pot. As you can see, the compost comes right up to the lip of the container. So, when I am watering, it will just cascade off the side. What I really need to do is take out some of this compost here so that it’s level like this one here. And as you can see, this plant is doing a lot better. This is just I think a jalapeno, but you can see how many blooms are on this plant. And the plant is also fruing as well. Now, I would hazard a guess that this plant is getting more water to it than this one here, which is probably stifling it a little bit. So, again, I’m going to take out some of this compost, and then that should help me with watering. [Music] [Music] So with some good thorough watering the next day you can see the plant has now completely come back to life. I think I speak for pretty much all balcony gardeners when it comes to the wind. The wind is probably one of our biggest struggles. Now, I have done several different videos on the wind. I will leave those in the description box below. However, what I will say in this video is um some things you just cannot control. And I think that’s really really important. What you can do on the ground level garden is you can create wind breakers. So people will build things like hedges and that will change the direction of the wind. On a garden like mine, that’s just not something that I can do. And as much as I want to try and control everything, I’ve learned that actually I can’t. Especially when you live in a city, these cities with all of these tower blocks going up, the wind whips around some of these buildings. And actually, you cannot plan for that. And so what I’ve tried to do on this garden now is try and find plants that work in this space. So, for example, I’ve incorporated quite a few different alpines into this garden because in actual fact, alpines are used to being in mountainous regions. My grape vine, I love my grape vine. It’s taken a real battering. In fact, just a couple of days ago, the top end of the grape vine broke off, which I was upset about, but the plant is still going. In fact, it’s used to living in mountainous conditions and it’s adaptive for it. So, where it’s broken off, new shoots and new buds are forming. So, actually, that’s a decent plant to use. Whereas over here on this arch, I grew beans. And beans do not like being up here on this balcony on the edge of this archway at least. And so I’ve learned that next year, although they look pretty, right now they look tired and haggarded. And that’s because those big, wide, broad leaves don’t actually help. Something like this jasmine, for example, it has had challenges. It didn’t like being at the front of the arch, but now that it’s on this side, it’s done really, really well. And one of the reasons for that are these waxy leaves. And these waxy leaves help to keep the moisture within this plant. That means it transpires less and actually suffers less damage. [Music] Look for plants that have got leaves which are kind of spread open a little bit which allows the wind to blow through and that adaptation helps the plant in windy conditions things like grasses. So, a really good stipper or a carex grass will do really, really well in a windy condition because it will just move and sway in the wind. But then you also get the different textures that come with having a grass in your container. [Music] [Music] Basically, in essence, my point of view has really changed. It’s grow the right plant for the right place. And if that means that you can’t have your Instagram garden that you see online, but you have a garden that is functional and works, so be it. Put in those poppies, put in the grasses, have less stress, and a garden that you can actually enjoy rather than just being constantly stressed out because of the wind. [Music] [Music] When you’re growing in containers, you are going to have to feed your containers a lot more than you would a ground level garden simply because a bag of compost should have literally around about 3 years of feed. So if you’ve been using that same compost over and over again in time the nutrients will be gone. So you do need to add some more in. I’ve got a whole video on how to replenish your compost and I’m going to leave that in the description box below. But an alternative, especially if you’re growing something like these tomatoes, uh tomatoes, chilies, cucumbers, melons, all of those kind of fruits, they’re going to need a lot of fertilization. So, what you could use is a liquid fertilizer. You might want to use those every couple of weeks or so. For me, I use my fish pond. I use the waste water for my fish pond to fertilize my garden. But another thing I use is seaweed fertilizer. And that really helps to give the plants all of the nutrients that they need. [Music] I’ve shown you guys this before, but this is my ratchet seating area. It’s actually my favorite part of the garden because I sit here and then I enjoy the view of the whole garden from here. But in these containers is my home. So this is my homemade compost pile. And so I’ve got three buckets. I think this is the oldest one. It needs a bit of a turn. Now what I do is at the start of the year I will just grab some of this compost and I’ll use this as a mulch. And it doesn’t matter if it’s not fully broken down yet because I know that I’ve got all of these insects on this garden. So, what I will do is I will use some of that compost as a mulch in there and that will help to suppress some weeds, but it also will break down eventually on the garden. If you would like a tutorial on how to make this stuff, let me know because I’ve been working at it over the past couple of years. So, I’m more than happy to show you how to make that. But again, this is another great way of adding in extra nutrients to your containers so that you don’t have to spend lots of money on feeds and organic fertilizers. [Music] Today has been a bit of tough love, but I hope that you found this video useful. If you have, let me know in the comments below. If you got some more questions that you’d like me to answer, also let me know down below and I’m happy to do another video in this series. Hopefully, I will see you all again very, very soon. Bye. [Music]