Plants can quickly transform a dull balcony into an inviting garden retreat. Use planters of various shapes and sizes, but ensure that the plantings are at eye level for best results.
This summer, plant mounding and trailing varieties such as Wave petunias, calibrachoas, begonias, impatiens, and lantana for maximum visual excitement. This will offer plenty of visual delight!
Choose Your Plants Wisely
Selecting the appropriate plants is critical to creating a stunning garden. While you might be tempted to grab every vibrant specimen that catches your eye, it is essential to consider your overall garden design and which plants would best complement existing plantings.
As you design your garden, consider selecting plants based on factors like color, size, texture, and fragrance. Including varieties with various bloom times is also beneficial so that your garden remains beautiful from spring to fall.
When selecting plants for your balcony garden, it’s essential that you consider its climate and location carefully. Plants that don’t match up well will suffer, leading to additional water needs, potential disease outbreaks, and less-than-ideal growth results.
Choose plants adapted to their environment, like moss and succulents, which thrive in damp conditions. Shade-loving tropical species, like ferns, love being shaded on balconies and are an excellent addition. Following this principle will reduce maintenance and yield better results than ever.
Balconies can quickly become dusty and disorganized, so it is wise to establish a regular maintenance plan. Even if it means spending just 10 minutes each week sweeping, watering, and generally beautifying your space, even 10 minutes will make an enormous difference!
Think about Your Space
One advantage of a balcony over a garden is that its size allows you to take things slowly when landscaping it, according to Wayfair Style Advisor Nadia McCowan Hill—having an overall theme or style in mind for your design process and choosing colors and fabrics for furniture and accessories more easily.
Hanging planters can help create an eye-catching vertical display without wasting precious floor space. Fabric grow bags also make an excellent addition to balconies as they can hold everything from flowers and vegetables to herbs and other garden produce.
When selecting plants for your balcony, it’s important to consider its microclimate and any height restrictions, along with factors like wind conditions and sunlight hours. On a sunny day, take an hour or so to inspect each corner of your balcony in turn until you notice which areas receive shade at different times, then choose flowers or shrubs accordingly.
Strive for a balance of greenery and flowers on your balcony to make it feel like an outdoor room. Fill any empty spots with potted plants for visual interest. Choose an array of flowering and non-flowering plants so that the color stays consistent throughout the season, adding fragrant varieties as extra finishing touches.
Add Some Elegance
Have you seen garden center displays with elegant containers? One key to their look is using height. Try stacking planters or choosing an urn-style pot to add height and drama to your balcony display.
Repurpose an old wagon or wheelbarrow as garden containers to add rustic charm that fits well into any design scheme, or create wall-mounted planters from recycled pallets to hold plants and herbs.
Consider adding climbing plants and vines to your balcony for a tropical vibe. A trellis or fence can add privacy while simultaneously adding color.
An ideal option for balconies is selecting hardy perennials that require minimal care to add color year-round. These hardy plants thrive even under conditions that would see delicate species wither away and die, creating an abundance of bright hues with every plant adding its vibrancy and lushness to the scene.
Perennials make great additions to balconies due to their ability to self-sow or spread from existing roots, enabling you to keep plants alive all year round without replanting them each spring.
Decorating your balcony decor stylishly requires adding decorative accents that bring life and personality into the space. A tablecloth, chairs, and cushions all contribute to its comfort and aesthetics, while curtains can help provide more privacy; depending on their fabric type, they can even reduce light levels at certain times of the day.
Add Some Privacy
A balcony can be an idyllic retreat for relaxation, rejuvenation, and sunbathing. However, achieving privacy in such a limited space may prove challenging – particularly if neighbors or passersby pass nearby regularly and can peek in.
Several creative and stylish ways exist to add privacy without building walls or fences. A simple solution would be planting tall or spiky plants in large planters or troughs as natural barriers or climbing greenery massed together on a trellis to form a green wall of seclusion.
Planters or troughs filled with colorful decorative flowers make an eye-catching balcony display, while single pots containing only one variety can also look enticing. To keep things interesting and prevent an overwhelming monotony from emerging in your design, ensure the ratio between foliage heights and flowering plants reaches three or more for an eye-catching design.
Another solution for your balcony could be investing in a privacy screen, which can be placed in front of or between seating areas or other buildings. These screens come in freestanding and portable designs and various materials and styles to fit your space and budget needs.
Alternatively, Vidya Amberker Interiors offers an even more effective privacy solution with their balcony divider, which not only acts as a barrier but adds color and personality to an otherwise neutral setting.
Add Some Variety
Balance color, form, and texture to create an impressive container display. Mixing complementary but discordant plants can have a dramatic visual impact while remaining natural-looking; here, we see this accomplished with Baby Tut dwarf papyrus, elephant’s ear (Colocasia esculentum), sweet potato vine, and Vogue Audrey Mandevilla, creating an overflowingly vibrant display that stands up well even under full sunlight conditions.
Container groupings can create drama at a focal point or draw the eye to areas often overlooked. On this porch, this simple group of terra-cotta pots softens the transition from garden to home and welcomes guests with open arms.
When space is at a premium, create a creative planting scheme featuring mounding and trailing plants in one container. Selecting flowers that complement each other for a successful hanging basket design is critical; in this instance, yellow zinnias and bright pink tuberous begonias serve as the focal points, with blue Cape plumbago and golden lantana providing fillers. English Ivy (Hedera Helix) adds elegance and structure, clinging firmly around its sides, completing this unique creation.
By mixing flower arrangements with leafy greens like grasses, containers can become more texturally interesting. Here, orange pansies, violas, and purple fountain grass (Senecio serrulatus) create a striking autumnal welcome on this front porch. Purple fountain grass blooms from summer into fall, bringing ongoing interest to this display year after year.
If you have seen an attractive potted garden at your local garden center and want to recreate its look at home, this design may be your solution. Select tough perennials with long bloom times that thrive in humid environments like the South. A variety of flower colors is important; coleus stands out because its bold and assertive hue stands out against tight clusters of lantana flowers with cool hues and stunning leaf shapes for added contrast.