You can grow 20 kinds of vegetables on a 2 sq m balcony, enough to eat all year round

Envious of other people's big vegetable gardens, then look at your own small balcony - little space, poor ventilation, short sunlight hours, and you still want to grow vegetables and flowers? Don't worry, Huahua teaches you how to grow vegetables efficiently, harvest after harvest, until you can't eat any more.

Image author of this article: Enjoy Life Every Day

Source: I Love Vegetable Garden website

Step one of growing vegetables: making use of space

For a small 2 sq m balcony, the first thing to think about is how to use the space. All kinds of iron and wooden racks are the basic tools for growing vertical vegetables.

(Image author: Enjoy Life Every Day)

Specific steps:

For a spot near the window, where the light is good and the use rate is high, set up a two-tier wooden rack, which you can custom-make from anti-corrosion wood boards, with waterproof cloth as an inner lining, and plant garlic chives, small chili peppers and cherry tomatoes. To prevent overheating from direct sun right next to the window, you can stick reflective heat-insulating aluminum film on the side facing the window.

On two sides of the balcony you can set up two rows of movable iron racks. Make one row of racks into a single-tier hanging type, used for planting climbing vegetables such as cucumbers; you can imitate a greenhouse by using white thin string as a guide rope, letting the vines grow upward along the string. Make multiple layers of shelves on the side of the rack to hold small potted plants, growing strawberries.

The other row of racks can be set up with multiple layers of hydroponic vegetables, using a hydroponic machine with pipe cultivation, to grow some leafy vegetables, such as lettuce, water spinach and garland chrysanthemum. Hydroponic leafy vegetables are planted harvest after harvest, clean and soil-free, and grow quickly.

Step two of growing vegetables: light and ventilation

The biggest problem with an enclosed balcony is that the time of sunlight exposure is too short, as well as the very fatal ventilation problem.

Light:

Living in a building, in a small balcony, wanting more than 10 hours of natural light every day cannot be achieved, but to meet the growth needs of the plants, we can supplement the light artificially. Install LED grow lights on each row of racks to increase the light.

Ventilation:

If ventilation is poor, install equipment too: install two solar panels at the top of the window, connected to fans installed at both ends of the racks, so that the whole enclosed environment is in a state of air flow, preventing the balcony temperature and humidity from being too high, which easily causes pests and diseases.

Step three of growing vegetables: the trouble of pests and diseases

When growing vegetables on a balcony, what cannot be avoided is the breeding of pests and diseases. Some are small insects that fly in from outside, and some may be pathogens or insect eggs carried in the soil.

As for the problem of pests and diseases, the most important thing is frequent observation, early detection and early treatment, removing plants affected by pests and diseases to prevent them from continuing to harm other vegetables. In severe cases of pest infestation, in order to wipe them out, you can use a small amount of pesticide.

If you are a vegetable-growing friend who does not want to use pesticide, we can catch the insects by hand, hang yellow sticky insect traps next to the vegetables, or make our own chili water: choose especially spicy red chili peppers, add water and boil for half an hour, let it cool and spray it on the surface of the vegetables.

Growing vegetables and flowers on an enclosed balcony

Have you learned how to use elevated racks?

If everyone has better ways to grow vegetables

You are welcome to leave a comment below~

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