7 Vegetables that will grow Happily on your Balcony

The freshest food is the best food. That’s a fact, right? Fine dining restaurants everywhere pride themselves on cooking using only the freshest ingredients sourced directly from farms nearby, which is why they get to add an extra zero to their menus. But as much as we all love fine dining experiences there’s a way to get even fresher produce than they serve – grow it yourself. Metropolitan dwellers don’t laugh – you don’t need a farm or even a garden to grow these plants. All you need is a small ledge that is bathed in sunlight. Happy planting!

1) Carrots

All carrots need to grow is a deep (go for about a foot and a half) pot, some potting mix and a handful of carrot seeds. Plant a couple to test them out and you should have some sprouts within two weeks.

2) Green Beans

Put some seeds in moist soil and place some sticks in the soil to allow them to cling to as they grow. Wait a week or two and voila – fresh delicious green beans.

3) Potatoes

Potatoes will happily grow in a pot, a bucket or even a sack. Get some tubers from your local gardening shop, plant them at the bottom of a sack and keep piling on soil as the tubers grow.

4) Mushrooms

Mushrooms don’t even need a ledge which the sun reaches; any dark space will do. Simply add mushroom spawn to specially prepared soil, water it once and then leave it in a dark cupboard. Give it a month and you’ll have fresh mushrooms galore.

5) Herbs

If you live in a sunny place then plant some basil, cilantro, parsley, sage or mint sprouts in a pot that has direct access to sunlight for at least four hours each day. Water regularly and you’ll have fresh herbs to make herbal tea.

6) Kale

Come summer or winter, kale will continue to grow. Simply allow the sprouts enough room between each other and harvest leaves each week.

7) Salad Greens

Purchase seeds for plants like lettuce, spinach and romaine lettuce from a gardening shop or online. Put them in a pot that has small drainage holes cut in the bottom and cover them up with soil. To harvest pull out the outer, oldest leaves being careful not to damage the roots.