How to grow a balcony farm in six steps

Living in cosy city digs shouldn’t mean you miss out on growing your own edible crops, says Belinda Thackeray, manager of Sydney City Farm.

1 Location, location, location

Where will you be sowing your seeds? The aspect of your plot will impact what kind of crops you can effectively grow. “Edible plants prefer more sun,” Thackeray says. “You can still grow them [in the shade], but you might focus more on leafy greens and herbs as opposed to tomatoes, zucchinis or capsicums – those fruiting crops that you would traditionally grow more in the sun.”

2 Build your plants a happy home

Now you need to figure out what you’re growing the plants in. If you’re working with odd angles, you might think about building your own custom plant home. Keep it eco-friendly by sourcing materials from Sydney recycling pros like Reverse Garbage or furniture-focused op shops like Salvos Minchbury. “You can do something that’s vertical, stack your plants, use lots of little pots that run up a wall – there are lots of options.”

3 Soil is the root of it all

Thackeray encourages people to start with the most nutrient-rich soil. “If you have good soil with lots of organic matter, then you won’t have to add heaps of fertiliser as you go along, and healthier plants are less susceptible to pests and diseases as well. You set yourself up for success.” Give a worm farm a go: they’re ideal for pumping soil with ecofriendly nutrients, and only require kitchen scraps, not the hefty amount of plant matter a composting system does. Those clever little invertebrates produce a liquid that’s a fab fertiliser.

4 Will it weather the season?

“Because Sydney is pretty temperate there are things we can grow all year,” Thackeray says. “But there are plants that really are for either the cool or warm seasons. In the warmer months, you’ll want to focus on fruiting varieties like tomatoes, zucchinis, eggplants, cucumbers and berries, then towards winter grow leafy greens like kale and cabbages. Silverbeet, spinach, beetroot and radishes grow year-round.”

5 Bathe your crop with care

Most edibles are quite water intensive, especially in hot weather. If you’re watching your water consumption (and we all should be), there are a few things you can do to minimise this impact on the environment. “We don’t generally use grey water on edible plants, but if you’re doing things like washing your lettuce or emptying bottles, putting all of that onto your plants is a great thing to do to reuse water. You could also put mulch down, which helps to hold the moisture in the soil.”

6 Crop rotation works for balcony farms too Thackeray says a good way to ensure your soil remains healthy is with succession planting: “Once a fortnight you just pop in a few more seeds.” Another option is crop rotation. “If you’ve had a lettuce come out, then you go, ‘Great, now I’ll grow a root vegetable like a beetroot or carrot in that space, or fruiting vegetables like capsicums and tomatoes.’ Otherwise it uses the same nutrients and you run out of it in the soil.” ■ Olivia Gee