Is it worth growing veggies on a balcony/patio? | Abundance from a Small Balcony Garden
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- Опубліковано 1 жов 2024
- I have been often asked why do I grow food on my balcony, is it worth all the effort. I am sure most you balcony gardeners might have also faced the same question. Let us put it out in the open and discuss it while I show you what I could harvest from my balcony space in 2021 and also some clips of using them in my kitchen.
Link to some relevant videos:
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New Garden Reveal: • New Garden Reveal | Mo...
Step by Step Guide to starting a vegetable garden: • How I Transformed my 6...
Basics of sowing seeds: • When, Why & How of Sow...
Easy DIY sowing containers: • 7 Easy Ways to Make Pl...
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My husband and I just sold our home and property to pay off all our debt, and moved into an apartment while we save money for our dream homestead. I use to have a large garden and now I have a balcony. At first I was worried how much food I could grow, but now I’m excited about the adventure and creativity I will get to explore in growing things in new ways. Perhaps it will help me be a better steward of using our future land more space effectively. ❤ Thank you for your encouragement in this video.
That is awesome! You get more creative when you have less space. Good luck for you balcony garden journey😊
What a great video 💚. Although self sufficiency is not possible on a balcony, every single leaf of lettuce is worth it. It's organic and the taste of homegrown vegetables is so much better. Growing your own food gives so much satisfaction :-)
So true! Thank you :)
You feel proud of it
Thanks for the video! It's definitely a valid question I have also asked myself. All-around self-sufficiency is a bit of a red herring because realistically you can't become fully self-sufficient. Staple crops like grains is impossible to grow for any individual nowadays. The amount of wheat that you would have to grow is comically large. Rice doesn't even properly grow in Germany. You would have to go back to pre-industrial times to being an inefficient farmer and even then, it's problematic. You can only ever want to be self-sufficient in a tiny area. That is possible. For the rest, you need to depend on modern society to work.
But I'm still growing vegetables. Why? Because while gardening on my balcony is not cheaper than modern agriculture and store logistics, it is cheaper than therapy and healthier than sitting on the computer all day long. Modern health problems have a lot to do with the abundance of extremely caloric foods while having no physical activity. You get active growing your own food. You learn about how to do it, learn about why modern agriculture is the way it is. You can try out so many vegetable varieties you cannot easily find in stores.
I grew 17kg of tomatoes, peppers and beans last year on my tiny balcony, enough to not run into the store for tomatoes for almost 5 months. It tasted just as good if not better than from the store. I excercised. It brings mental joy to do it :)
Thanks for sharing :)
You do not sóund very usual 😉! I enjoyed your contribution.
I planted some cherry tomato seeds in those little planters and it's been almost 3 weeks. I almost lost hope, but today in the morning I found the first tiny sprout peeking out from the ground. Oh joy!
There is usually no financial benefit to a balcony garden as you are able to get the same vegetable cheaper and with less expenditure of time if you purchase at the market. The main rewards come with things like improved mood, heightened creativity, reduced stress, feeling connected to nature, having a sense of adventure, mental stimulation, and a sense of well-being etc. We can never put a price on those things. Gardening has been shown to reduce cortisol levels, reduce blood pressure, improve mood, and increase longevity. I have a balcony garden and it gives me so much joy when I reap even 1 veggie, save one plant, or troubleshoot one problem. I can spend hours being lost in the planting and pruning. Thanks for sharing and keep up the nice work.
Wow, just stumbled upon this video while looking up for balcony gardening tips and man, this hit me hard. The entire video was extremely soothing and I felt as if I was listening to a book narration.
Felt so connected with your thoughts about starting small and striving for self sufficiency. You have the right mindset and heartset, wishing you the very best for your journey ahead.
Subscriber +1
Thank you for that comment. Made my day!
In the supermarkets you have too buy your herbs in bulk and its expensive especially for a single person like me!! I like growing what I can use in pots and containers so I can pick and use what I can whenever I can without the waste issue!!
So true!
I like how you point out that your balcony garden provides needed/beneficial qualities to your life in both edible and emotional ways. Sometimes ones plants do well, sometimes they don't, nonetheless, gardeners are always learning something in the process, and that in itself is rewarding. It makes us feel alive and helps us do better in the future. Thank you for your sweet video!
Thank you for your lovely comment :)
This was a very nice and well-put-together video, The question of self-sufficiency is definitely a question many people ask about and have many conversations about. I love the way you simplify it and put in into a realistic perspective in relation to balcony gardening... Brilliant... I strongly believe that everyone should try to grow something to cut food costs and experience the taste of homegrown fresh organic food. The food you grow is so much tastier and full of denser nutrients. I started gardening as a very young child with my grandmother. I loved it . Now I am teaching my children to garden and gain a good knowledge about how real food is grown and what organic food tastes like. we are having a grand old time learning and growing things together.
Very well said. Thank you for sharing your journey :)
Lovely little garden and a great quality video. We should arrive to be self sufficient at something, I grow in containers and sacks, greetings from Uganda
Thank you so much :)
Beautiful little garden☺👍 I garden in my townhouse backyard. It's very satisfying. Every year it's a new canvas.
It really is!
I enjoyed watching your video your garden is bountiful and beautiful. I am a fellow balcony gardener and it’s very satisfying for me as well to be able to grow food on my balcony.
So nice of you to drop by. Thank you :)
@@bringnatureinside 😊
My balcony is a vegetable garden! I had an ideal rural location for several years where I grew and canned all of our vegetables. This balcony is 11' x 5' and only receives sun until early afternoon. Also, this is my first attempt at gardening on a 3rd floor apartment balcony. It's quite a learning experience. A lot of work also with filling planters, watering, etc. But, working outside and watching the plants sprout is worth it all. I sit out there with my morning coffee and am so thankful. The peacefulness of your voice as you work in your garden reminds me of the joy when I step outside. God bless.
Thank you so much, this means a lot. I can imagine the excitement you will be having in setting up your garden on a balcony. But it must be quite different to gardening on the ground right!. :)
@@bringnatureinside Quite different! The in ground garden was huge! Also the southern exposure gave me eight+ hours of full sun a day. Wind is also a problem up here. The space is small so another investment of trellises, and it is a covered balcony. So, all-in-all I may have the basic skills needed to garden up here, but the elements and my management of the specific environment is a learning experience. Sounds as if you are gaining the basic skills to garden in ground! I found in ground gardening easier than what I'm dealing with up here. Hope you do also.
@@miatap21 That is true. I used to grow crops that thrived on my balcony and not have much expectation about the crops that needed lots of sun. Shaded baclonies have lot of advantages especially when growing tomatoes, they are not affected by the rains. It is a controlled space.
Yes this is the first time I am going to grow veggies on the ground. There are a lot of birds around, I don't know how easy it would be for me. :) We will have to see.
@@bringnatureinside
I don’t have a balcony. I do have two rooms, one with big window. So I bought blackout curtain room divider, and divided the room. I put bright led light poles, and grow lights which are timed to turn on when room empty.
I love keeping butterflies so making a little screen house for them. When I have flowers I will let a few roam the house and pollinate my plants.
I can see the whole journey either, but taking this step.
I have been growing on my small balcony and your video is so helpful
I am so glad :)
Lovely video! Started my balcony garden this summer and sooo happy I did. Thanks for the continued inspiration! Blessings !
So happy to hear that 😊
I really like your take on self-sufficiency. It’s much more realistic and less rigid than a lot of other voices I hear, and it sounds a lot healthier mentally to my ear. I like looking at it for what it is and focusing on the real benefits rather than coming from a place of anxiety. The fact that it makes you happy is more than enough reason to do it. Not every reason has to be financial.
For me, having fresh veggies essentially on demand a lot of the time is the ultimate goal at this point in my life. I can’t do a ton on my tiny balcony especially considering it has a built in cover that blocks most of the light, but I can keep some fresh herbs and veggies going and some micro greens on a sunny window sill. It’s about doing what I can with the space I have and learning what I can while waiting to have a better space, which will hopefully happen at the end of this year.
If I can harvest salad greens and fresh herbs as I need them, even for part of the year, that’s certainly worth it.
Inspiring ideas. Watching from Australia 🇦🇺
So glad!
New subscriber. Nice video. Just a reminder that vertical gardening/stackable planters (i.e. Greenstalk or Mr. Stacky or hanging grow bags) could help you do more with less space. I am trying to learn more about this too. (I don't have much space either but enjoy trying something new.)
Thanks for the tips :)
My daughter has a 3rd floor balcony garden with the most amazing peppers, basil and mint. Far better than my inground plantings, same varieties even! You, obviously will go far, as your calming voice represents a quality both rare & unique on UA-cam! You are among a special class, a nuturing guardian.... of a very special garden!
Thank you so much for the wonderful comment 😊
Thank you , I need to try this again, very encouraging
Thank you :)
So inspiration! I hope that I can acquire such skills in my patio garden one day. 😍🥰❤️
Thank you! You can do it, it just needs some time :)
This made me entirely emotional and filled. Your voice, video editing, music, thoughts, knowledge and perspective, was incredible. I am very excited to start my balcony garden. Bless your soul, I hope your life is as rich and peaceful as you have made me feel.
Thank you for the wonderful comment :)
Was happy to read this - I got a bit emotional as well just because watching this is SO peaceful and inspiring at the same time. I think it's very healing, and brings a great contrast to daily subconscious stressors (hence a surprise emotional reaction). Thank you for sharing this @bringnatureinside!
From my experience, the sun is the most important component of abundance of vegetables. No matter how much fertilizers you use or the size of your container...Even in small container of 1-5 litres sometimes it grows better than in 20 litres pot. This spring I will try to grow plants with grow lights and maybe I will have better harvest. ( In winter almost nothing is growing in a soil only in hydroponics)
I can’t agree more.. sun is the most essential part, everything else just follows.. 😊
Lovely balcony garden..nice to connect
Thank you so much 😊
I have just found your video. What a great video. Before end the video subscribed you.Very encouraging video. I also started small garden like you. Thank you for sharing
Welcome aboard and thank you :)
Wow I loved your video. It’s a wonderful start to growing your own food. You inspire me.
Hey Neelia, thank you very much😊
I love this. Usually I feel bad because my veggies are smaller and sadder looking than some videos.😂
I've been give up gardening because i always fail. I guess i"m not person with green thumb. Watching your video makes me realize something that to start small. Thank you for your great video. I decided to start gardening again
i love this video. i have a super nice balcony around 20 m² in austria so same climate as germany. i am currently in the process to stop being the couch potatoe, playing games all day and want to start gardening as a form of healthier activity, and also some discipline exercise in order to keep my plants alive, to live more healthy food wise cause the prices in the grocery are horrible and last but not least to finally get some usage for this huge huge balcony which is empty since 6 years. i need some basic starting ideas and when to do what. watering. cutting, harvesting. i don't even know why you harvested the green tomatoes. i have to learn a lot, also how to deal with the pretty agressive sun on my top fleer and the huge winds we have sometimes a year and since im top floor in the 6th floor the winds get outrageous sometimes. but like you said. one step at a time. thanks for the inspiration.
Start small, it will take some time to figure out your space.. but great decision and all the best 😊
It is never boring!
I have a pineapple that has fruited (I have many pineapples but this is the first to fruit) and I have to go and look at it every day lol
Growing food is exciting!
Oh this video is so lovely to watch! I discovered your channel yesterday with your raised bed DIY (I might try to build my own based on what you did). This year, we decided we wanted to fully take advantage of our balcony while waiting to move to the countryside in a few years. Your videos about balcony gardening are so inspiring and brings me so much hope for our own small space 💚🌱🌸
Yay! Thank you! :)
Your harvest is great!
Wonderful video, wondergul narration. So happy to watch the video repeatedly. Please release more and more such Videos🙏
So nice of you
Just subscribed! Planning on beginning this when I move to my new apartment in August. It will have a very small yard. I want to try to grow veggies/herbs out there.
Thank you so much :) Good luck with your new garden..
Love your words more than your garden ❤️❤️
Thank you so much :)
😍😍😍💚
Hey Tina, thanks for stopping by. :)
What a beautiful video! Thank you for sharing!!
Glad you enjoyed it!
Fantastic garden and ideas for fruits 🍇 🍅 🍈 and veggies 🥒 🥬 and herbs 🌿 🌿 🧡
How do you make the tomatoes stand up?
Loved your video 😁
I used just a stick to support them, they are determinant varieties, will not grow beyond a certain height :)
Nice video and nice sharing 🙂
Thank you :)
Stumbled upon your channel and Im so glad that I did, that was a fantastic video, so calming and relaxing from start to finish🥰🥰
Thanks for the lovely comment and great to have you here ❤️
Last year i grew a single okra in 20gallon pot. It grew very big, and the pods is also huge. That one single pot can fed family of 3 with once a week consumption.
Wow thats so cool.. my okras has not been very successful till now.. trying my luck again this time… 😊
This is so relaxing. New subscriber here.
Welcome and thank you :)
Put indian veggie too , Like black beuty brinjal , it gives me every 10 days 1 big brinjal , baingan bharta
Love the video! It is the first balcony gardening video I have seen that is realistic, but encouraging. Beautiful garden, and video itself is very well-made and relaxing to watch also... definitely earned a new subscriber
So nice of you. Thank you😊
Vary nice video😊do you ever Grow more concentrated then harvest smaller size?
Your voice is so soothing and therapeutic ❤
Your video is a pure joy to me.. Lovely and inspiring at the same time
Thank you very much for the lovely comment❤️😊
This video is really inspiring❤I'm going to start growing veggies on my balcony 😊
What's the music in this video? The piano sounds so beautiful
Nice vid
How’s the weather in your city, are you able to harvest all year round or is it only seasonal?
❤❤lots of love for your efforts and also share a beautiful story behind every gardens ❤️
The intro was unbearable. Just show me how to do it instead of talking all weird
This is really a great try and inspiring! Keep it up. 💜
Thank you so much!!
Is it worth growing veggies an o Balcony/ patio ?
Loved your video! The story about the boy and horse is so meaningful!
Thank you so much!
Lovely, lovely video - a real treat to watch when I cannot sleep. We have a small courtyard garden with raised beds, pots and window boxes. This year we decided to grow mostly culinary herbs as my husband loves to cook, and we found that we used them up so quickly when grown in the standard size herb pots. I have put some flowers in between, and really love the look of the garden - which is a bonus. Next year I plan to grown strawberries as I find supermarket ones tasteless - my sister-iin-law gave me some she had grown and they were full of flavour. Oh, and I have bought some little hanging pots, and will try to grow scented herbs at nose-level in them. All the best from a new subscriber xx
Thanks for sharing. Do share some pics of your garden on instagram. 😊
@@bringnatureinside I will, if I’m not too lazy to repaint the garden walls this summer - they certainly need it 🫢
Good video ...show what you do in a small space
Your voice is calming
Thank you very much :)
God has given this joy to us because this is part of why Jesus created us 🙏
What kind of tomato is good for balcony
I would recommend bush tomatoes or determinant varieties that stops growing after a certain height.
Thank you
Excellent .Very creative & inspirational. Subscribed from Malaysia.
Thank you :)
Love this video
Thank you 😊
What a beautiful and inspiring video! I just used your instructions to create my first composting bucket and am so excited to see what is in store in 2-3 months. I also noticed you mentioned you are in Germany - I live in Berlin myself and am curious: what are you working on in your garden during the winter months? Do you have any videos for both planting/spring preparation? I'll take a look but would love to hear your thoughts/plans this season. Thanks and keep up the lovely work 💚!
I usually skip winter and start in spring. There are a few videos on my channel and will make more.. thanks for your comment :)
Thank you for sharing your beautiful bountiful space..im a beginning patio gardener now and you just gave so much hope. Thank you. ❤️
PESTO - wonderful - YOU are a positive inspiration - small space with love, food and peace of mind - you and your family are eating healthy…PERFECT! YES, YES, YES…it is worth every moment - peaceful place - gardening
Such a brilliant video.
What a wonderful video. I got here because I decided to start growing something on our small patio which is about 5x8 feet. I hope to grow lettuce, tomatoes, herbs and berries
Very Nice , i liked it the way you have presented, i am taking a big step to leave a corporate life and start something to do with healthy lifestyle and sustainable living. Your nice documentary will help in some way. Thanks You.
Good luck to you😊
Can we eat Nasturtium??
New subscriber and very new to gardening entirely but really excited about the journey. Your lettuce looks great what kind of lettuce is it? I want something that that I can take a few leaves from at a time and not a whole head that I have to harvest one off.
Thank you :)
Agree! What a wonderful video. I felt so at peace listening and watching you. You are amazing. ❤😊
Gardening is my passion too! Wonderful video!
Beautiful video. So encouraging and relaxing to watch.
Thank you so much!
Love your gardening. 🙂
What a wonderful idea. Thank you. I won't settle on flowers, anymore! I love home grown veg.
Hi from Denmark. You also give your plants love which is very important in my opinion.
Thank you for the kind words… 😊
Such a sweet video. 💛
I love you garden and you passion for gardening, keep going, the tone of your voice is very peaceful, me and my 3 year old grandson were listening and he followed to sleep,. Thank for your videos.
Telugu peoples here🎉🎉🎉😊
Very nice
Thank you😊
The nasturtium pasta is genius!! It’s one of my favorite plants and I didn’t even know it was edible until this year. I’m definitely gonna use that recipe!
What is the name of the plant that has rounded leaves u used
I think you are referring to Nasturtiums
thank you for sharing your garden it's beautiful
Thanks for visiting
Gardening makes me happy, as well.
Hi, love from uk, I love to watch your videos.
Thank you :)
Beautiful video.
It would be so nice to see the entire square footage of the balcony as opposed to just select spaces.
Hey... What camera or phone do you use to shoot such crisp scenes!!?
Thank you for the comment. I use Sony alpha 7 iii
Nice sharing stay connected 🎉
Thank you :)
Spread the seeds of joy for abundance~
Nasturtium is edible?if yes then how to consume in food
I usually make a pesto sauce with it.
Why did you remove green tomatoes? Do you use them green?
Yeaa the last of the tomatoes, i use them as green. Sometimes i keep them to ripen on the windowsill, otherwise i use to make green tomato chutney..
Does your balcony have roof?
Yes it had..
You have a very calming voice. Loved the video.
Thank you so much 🙂
Those tomatoes inspire me to create my own garden.
Good luck in your journey!
Appreciated......
Half way through the video and I'm already kinda ashamed of my balcony garden 😅 Last year was my first year gardening and I'm not sure whether I got to harvest half of this. And yet I was so proud 😂😂 i hope this year things will be better- I've now moved to another balcony with little more sun😊
Greetings from your new subscriber🌻
There is nothing to be ashamed of. It is a part of the journey. Nice to have you here :)
Congrats for being awareness as a small veggies gardener
You and your garden really inspired me today! I am currently doing my research of the best way to go about it, as I currently live in the Caribbean side of Mx and don't know much about gardening. Are you familiar with Tower Gardens or hydroponics? I want to utilize both and see how it goes.
You and what you grow are beyond beautiful! Thank you for sharing 🤎
I have seen the hydroponic tower garden but never tried it till now. Good luck to you and keep me updated about your experience. 😊