I wanna show you my this years’ brain child. I already put weeks and weeks of work into it, and right now, I’m at the point where I can say that it’s about 90% finished.
But I guess that’s good enough for now.

Originally, I planned to put it into one big post, but now I decided to split it into multiple parts, so it becomes more digestible for you. It probably still will be way too long tho…

In this part, I just want to show you what types of planters/ setups I have, and how I get to use every single square inch on this small balcony, measuring only 4,5 (4) x 2 meters, or 14 x 7 ft in freedom units.

I’m also a cat parent, so I had to cat proof it completely. Sadly, because I had to install poles with a net fence around, I already lost quite a bit of available space.
I still tried my best to make use out of it!

Permaculture with living soil for beneficial insects

The area outside the cat net is mostly inaccessible for me most of the time. Instead of wasting this precious centimeters, I decided to give nature something back and also grow some garlic, which is toxic for my cats, but protected there :D

The pots out there are filled with wild flower seeds mostly, but I’ll tell you more in the next post if you stick around :)

As a substrate, I chose to make my own soil, consisting of spent mushroom mycelium cakes (I also grow gourmet mushrooms), LECA and lava stone for aeration and drainage, as well as some plant matter (kitchen scraps, leaves, etc.), rock meal, a bit of organic fertilizer and a hand full of dirt from the park for the start.
I already created them in late autumn last year, and they were allowed to “age” over the winter, so everything gets properly decomposed.

I also built an insect hotel myself, and already have the first inhabitants!

Inside the walkable area, I also have some remaining soil pots, mostly for permaculture. I decided to stick with soil for some plants, because for example my blackberries, which I can harvest every year, it didn’t make much sense to me to grow them hydroponically.

The other few pots are mostly there because I put a lot of work into them transforming the toxic, hazardous soil (it literally disintegrated earth worms!) into an oasis full of live last year. And of course, because digging in dirt is fun ;)

As a “trellis”, I made a living one out of willow cuttings I sticked into the dirt a few months ago, which I then braided.
I made a post about it here and another one there, both in German, but you can guess the content good enough by the pictures alone ;)

Speaking of digging, this is a no-till, organic, living soil culture.

Mostly, I used soil there because I absolutely don’t care about any deficiencies or whatever out there. There is such a big diversity of plants growing in there, that there will for sure be a few ones that cope with different levels of nutrients.

I also don’t care about weeds. There are enough nutrients and water for everyone, and if they grow too big for me, I just snap them and stuff them into the dirt sometimes.

My main goal for all of this is to

Create a hotspot for biodiversity. I already succeeded in that, because I there are so many insects already, it’s amazing! Cute jumping spiders, beetles, wild bees, etc.
Prevent pests in my crops (for humans). I had to fight a hard battle against aphids and other pests last year, and the slug infestation almost made me insane! By introducing natural predators, like ladybugs, I want to just let nature take its course and fight them off herself without much work from my side.
Pollination. I grow a few plants that need pollinating insects to fruit, and I hope that it might increase my yields.

Of course, my cats also have their own corner, including drinking bowls and grass to chew on! :D

Here’s how it looked from outside a few weeks ago:

Hydroponics

I already introduced my solar powered, recirculating drip setup last year. Check out !hydroponics@slrpnk.net if you’re interested :)

I made some improvements over the setup last season, and now I have 6 of those in the front row for my crops that will definitely benefit from it, including cannabis, pepino and more.

For those, I have the typical hydroponics benefits, such as:

Faster growth and higher yields
Way less pests
Less water usage
More control and insight on what’s going on there, thanks to EC and pH-meters in particular!

I still have to wait a few more weeks until I will plant the stuff outside, because it can still be too cold at night right now.

The other corner is mainly for smaller, fast growing stuff.
There are quite a few Kratky and semi-hydro setups that don’t need much maintenance.

I also gave coco coir a chance this time

Bog pot

The pots where the poles are placed in are filled with concrete and were pretty much wasted space last year. I also had to pump out the rain water all the time to prevent mosquitoes from spreading.

This year, it’s completely different.
I covered the surface with lava and LECA, and planted some different moss and succulent species there.

Now, if it rains, they don’t stand in a puddle, and always have moisture from below to wick up.
There will hopefully also sprout some carnivorous plants I try to grow from seed.

Water collecting and shading

The balcony doesn’t have a roof, so I have to shield myself and the plants from too much heat (south facing) and rain (especially bud rot with weed).

I’ve hung the awning that way that I can collect rain water, which I darely need for my hydro stuff.

If peak afternoon from sideways becomes too hot, I can unfold the sides to get more protection.

Wastewater recycling (aka feeding my “pond”)

I don’t have a huge amount of used up hydroponic nutrient solution, even though I have about 70-100 houseplants and a crammed up balcony.

Still, I don’t want to burden the water treatment facility, and every bit counts. So I pour most of my fertilizer water in the “pond”.

Also, this "waste"water isn’t waste, but still full of delicious fertilizer.

So, I went into the forest and foraged some duckweed.
It’s one of the fastest growing plants out there (I started with not even 5 small flakes, and it grows exponentially), extremely resilient, doesn’t have any needs and has some great uses.

It protects the puddle from the sun, so it doesn’t grow too many algae in the summer.
Duckweed is one of the most nutrient dense plants out there, and one of the few rare sources of plant based vitamin B12, protein, and much much more.

I plan to grow it, and then I can just scoop it off the surface and put it into my smoothie or whatever.

And if it tastes like shit, I can still make organic fertilizer out of it ;)

Obvious mosquito protection and debris filter included. Check.

That’s it! Thanks for reading! See you soon, when I cover every plant I grow!