Design
Shoe Organizer Planter
One great thing about being a balcony gardener is that you’re forced to get creative with the little space you have. And sometimes you find great container plant displays that truly make your garden special. One space-saving plant display is to pack a shoe organizer with potting soil and plants.
Container Recipe for a Low-Light Plant Display
You may have a shady balcony, but that doesn’t mean you can’t keep colorful, lush container plantings. This low-light plant display with colorful foliage and flowers can pop on any shady balcony or near a south-facing window in an indoor garden. You can tuck this display into a shady corner that won’t allow you to grow any light-loving plants.
Use Rocks in Plantings as Insulation and as a Design Element
Container gardens with cacti and succulents will look great and benefit from a layer of small rocks on the top of the soil. The rocks will insulate the potting soil. In hot, dry and windy weather, moisture will quickly evaporate from the soil, and this layer of rocks will keep moisture inside the pot and cut down on the watering you'll need to do.
But remember that if you plant your container very densely, the layer of rocks won't be as necessary because the plants and the roots below will insulate the soil.
What do you think? Don't you think this planting looks great with the rocks?
Use Chalkboard Paint on Plant Pots
A trend today is to put chalkboard paint on everything, even plant pots! Chalkboard paint is cheap and can be found at home improvement stores, craft stores and even big box stores like Target. You can spray paint it on or just paint it regularly with a paintbrush. I found a can of chalkboard spray paint for about $6 in my local craft store. Take that and one of your old terra cotta pots, and you've got a cheap, easy and cute way to spruce up your apartment garden.
You can paint the top rim of the pot like in the photos (make sure to use tape around the pot so it's nice and even), or you can paint a bit on the front. This is a great way to decorate the garden as well as a way to label your plants. You can erase what you write and use the pot over and over again for all types of plants.
But remember that if it rains or if you spill water on the pot while watering your plants, your chalk may wash off!
