Hi urban gardeners!

Many of us feel limited by our square footage, assuming bees require a massive backyard. However, with the right structural considerations, you can successfully host a compact hive right alongside your balcony container gardens.

When setting up a balcony apiary, the top three things you need to plan for are:

1. Weight Limits: Ensuring your hive placement sits directly over structural load-bearing joists.

2. Forcing Vertical Flight: Using simple baffles at the entrance so bees fly *up and out* over the building, completely avoiding your neighbors' balconies.

3. Micro-Foraging: Pairing your hive with high-yield balcony nectar plants to support the colony during high-wind days.

I wanted to share that I've just published a complete handbook specifically for this niche called "The Balcony Beehive" on Amazon Kindle. It covers everything from landlord frameworks to wind protection and compact equipment selections.

If you want to take your urban homesteading to the next level, you can find the guide here: https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0HHBDPKK5

Let me know if you have any questions about setting up pollinators in small urban spaces!

I just published my new eBook, The Balcony Beehive, specifically for apartment dwellers and urbanites who want to get into small-scale, sustainable beekeeping.

It covers everything from dealing with landlords and wind issues to choosing the right compact equipment for a patio or balcony.

If you love urban gardening and want to add a hive to your small space, check it out on Amazon here: https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0HHBDPKK5

I’d love to hear what your local city foraging setups look like! What are you growing on your balconies this season?

After my success over the past two years, I've decided to expand my balcony garden with a mango tree. With that, I'm looking for a good sized planter (30-35 gallons). Does anyone have any recommendations on where to buy? In person or online.

Omg I'm so worried about my rosemary. This is already my third rosemary.

I'm based in Singapore and I'm trying to grow rosemary indoors, by the windows(windows has UV protection film) where there's direct sunlight from 7am-12pm(3rd photo)

This is from a cutting which I cut from my first rosemary and grew it in a bottle of water, where it grew roots and I just repotted it around 2 weeks ago in this gritty mix(half gritty mix, half mixed soil). For the first week, it looked ok, staying upright and there were new shoots growing.

However, starting around 4 days ago, it starts to droop and the touch feels weak like what you see in the first photo. My watering routine is what chatgpt advised me, I bought this moisture meter, and measured the moisture daily around 4 spots around 3cm from the plant, and if average reading is below 3 then I will water. When I water, I pour water slowly throughout the pot, until water is dripping out from the bottom. Then I let water stop dripping before placing it back.

Did I do anything wrong? Thank you in advance!

Like when you go on a vacation for 2 weeks etc?

How do you handle watering, pests protection and other maintainance? Especially during the summer when there is more work to do.

I have my edible plants on balcony.

Hi folks,

Just curious what edible plants will succeed with that much direct sunlight (<2 hours in a day) on my balcony?

What are your experiences?

I posted on another page about my poor peppermint. It looked like it was doing ok, but people said it was screaming for light and had spider bites. So I put it outside, and what I figured would happen has happened. I forget about it or just cant bring myself to go outside and get it to water it. Im assuming everything else near it probably has spider bites too.

Ive been trying to learn how to grow my own food and ive never had a green thumb, but I got my peppermint from Lowes and its been over a month and it hadn't died! I even repotted it and one of its babies and they still didnt die! Thats huge. Now i also have 3 sprouts of cilantro growing from seed thats also huge and I'm so excited. But I only have 2 windows and a sliding door (i THINK theyre south facing?) and veeeeeerrrrrryyyyyy little space to put plants where they'll get light and also be safe from my cats. Also just have very little space in general.

I also have adhd and routines/habits have always been really REALLY hard for me but ive been doing really well actually with keeping up on watering my plants and ive been really proud of myself about that. But now im worried that I cant do it with so little space and so little light for them especially now that they have pests that i have no idea how to actially effectively treat.

I have a small grow light but somebody said they dont really do much and I havent tried using it yet.

Does anybody relate and if so, is there a way to do this with almost no space and very low energy?

I have recently moved to far north Queensland and I have some spare garden space (looking at sandy soils not far from the coast). I want to grow potatoes, tomatoes, onions, garlic, ginger and lettuce. How should I best go about this? I am thinking about a shade house for the potable plants and potentially grow bags for potatoes to save digging them up. Tomatoes I was going to place in a raised garden bed.

What’s wrong with my New England Asters?
They are growing in a full sun native perennial garden in Baltimore, Maryland.

I water them regularly however it has been raining quite a bit.

Just a view of our urban balcony garden. Growing mostly birds eye chilies but also tomatoes, Basil, herbs and others. Chili harvest has started! Best of luck to all growers out there!

Hello everyone, my neighbor recently died and while the building is figuring out what to do with her unit (I'm hoping to be able to move in) I am taking care of her plants. I just got access and one of the trees is already dead and this one does not look too good.

Can I still save it? These trees have been here for decades and it would be ashame for them to die.

This is on the UWS of NYC.

Thanks!

I am getting married soon and will be out of state for 2 weeks planning for my wedding. I am hoping to come back to some living plants but I am worried there will be no survivors.

I am gardening on a balcony in Grow Zone 7B. Part of it gets full sun, part of it is shaded most of the day. The balcony is covered so only plants near the railing get wet during an average rain.

Has anyone successfully kept their garden alive while away for 2 weeks?

To prep, I am thinking -
-large water trays for each plant
-Moving plants that need more water toward the edge of the balcony so they can get rain
-plant globes

Any other suggestions?

Hi everyone!

I’m in NYC and I need some help with my petite marigolds in the front plot of my house. They look pretty patchy, and I’m getting a lot more leaves than flowers. The overall planting just doesn’t look very full or balanced.

What can I do at this point in the season to improve the appearance of the plot? Should I prune some of the foliage, add more plants, move/replant anything, or just wait for more flowers?

Any advice on how to make this area look fuller and more attractive would be greatly appreciated!

Thank you!

We have lived in this town home that we rent for 10 years. This is the culmination of our growing efforts.

hi all and thank you in advance! i'm growing cucumbers on my balcony and left them under my roommate's care for two and a half weeks. i came back and while they are still alive and producing cucumbers, they look ... sad for lack of a better term. there's been some harsh heat in nyc the past few weeks, however i asked that my roommate water them extra on the super hot days.
any insight as to what is making them lose leaves would be much appreciated! (and advice on how to bring them back to see better days)

thank youuuu!

Hi, I live in New York City and I recently moved to an apartment that has some outdoor space in the form of a small balcony. The previous tenants left behind two planters and I have a large plastic pot from a house plant I downsized, so I wanted to put in some native plants to make insect habitat.

I was hoping to get some advice about what native plants would do okay in pots outside and overwinter without dying (though I can always re-plant). Two of the planters are circular: 17"w x 15"h and 13"w x 13"h. The third is low and wide with a trellis: 25"w x 10"h x 10"d. The balcony gets ~5 hours of direct sun midday where the circular planters are, and the trellis planter gets maybe 2 hours of direct sun.

I have very little gardening experience, so I would also love some general advice: I'm pretty sure summer is a bad time to plant, but can I plant in the fall? Or should I wait until spring? Does it depend on planting from seeds vs. plugs? And is it possible to plant two or three species in one planter, or will they crowd each other out? I've also noticed a squirrel (or several) that like to dig in the trellis planter, so is there a good way to prevent them while plants are establishing?

Thanks in advance!

I live in Chicago (6b) and I have large, mostly bare medians in my neighborhood that I want to improve, about 3,000 square feet total. The city permits our building to do what we want with the space (within reason). Whatever I do will be self-funded and self-managed, so I want to do something relatively inexpensive, low-maintenance, and perennial.

The space is on the north side of an east-west street but under trees, so it gets a lot of dappled sunlight but only the westernmost section gets 4+ hours of direct light. One of the sections has lilies, but otherwise it's just dirt and a few trees.

I've been thinking about spreading a partial shade or woodland edge wildflower seed mix this fall (something like this: link). It's an economical solution and hopefully wouldn't need a lot of attention once established. I've also thought about seeding grass or sedge for filler/edges, but haven't looked into it much. There are some hostas in our building's courtyard that I could also propagate, although rabbits demolished what I propagated this year.

Plugs or larger plants would be way too expensive for an area this size. Vegetables or herbs would definitely be raided by folks in the neighborhood. Understood that perennial wildflowers from seed won't bloom for at least the first year, but most of the seed mixes I’ve found have annuals for first-year color.

Any recommendations or experiences with something like this are welcome - thanks in advance!

This is the first year we’ve been able to plant here and despite a few setbacks its coming together! 25 different flowers, a mix of natives and not. Hopefully next year they’ll reseed and spread and it’ll look more full.

Hi y’all !!
Grew up with gardens thanks to my father’s mama and great aunt, and I’ve always dreamt of having our own as well… I’m just feeling very lost with not getting as much yield as I thought I would… lots of flowers and blooms but can’t seem to get to the next step and harvest!

We’re on island (Hilton head island) and would love some wisdom as to what I am doing wrong! Thank you!

Ps: Unity Hardscapes (David cash- amazing work!!) built these garden beds… will update when they finish them! (We had to do it in parts as we have a low budget but still wanted to get started!)