In urban conditions, decorating a balcony with fresh flowers becomes not only visually attractive, but even a healthy solution for space design. However, in order for green friends to please the owners with their appearance for a long time, you will need to find out in advance which crops to plant and how to properly care for them.
General recommendations
The balcony can be decorated with flowers in the summer using any design option - from the Japanese direction to the country. Although you can decorate the loggia without using a specific style, for example, simply by decorating the wall with bindweed and grapes. The flower garden should meet only the needs and wishes of the owners, and therefore, being in a clearly fenced room, it may not even coincide in style with the rest of the apartment.
Before equipping a balcony, it is necessary to evaluate its size, take into account the color of the walls and the existing decoration. In the case when the decor is based on the use of climbing crops, it is important to consider the possibilities for organizing a lattice or ropes on which elongated shoots will be placed.
Making a loggia only with plants in boxes and pots is quite simple - just follow the rules that are typical for landscape design, that is combine bushes of different heights, pick up spectacular combinations of shades and textures.
For ampelous plants, reliable fasteners will be required, which will ensure safety both for the inhabitants of the apartment, and for the plantings themselves.When organizing a vertical wall composition it is better to stick to a certain sequence.
Pros and Cons of Decorating
Of course, the flowers on the balcony are a bright and unusual decoration of the space, usually not worth a lot of money. A limited flowering period allows each year to create a new composition and completely change the appearance of the loggia. Seedlings do not need to be grown independently, and therefore the whole process of preparing for the summer season does not take much time and effort.
Small flaws include the need to take care of plantings, including watering, pest control, and treatment of diseases. Probably the occurrence of midges or some kind of insects that not only settle on the balcony, but also penetrate the apartment.
It can also be noted as a minus that on the open balconies after the end of the season only empty pots remain, and for the entire cold period the loggia loses its attractiveness.
Popular plant species
In general, the choice of this or that plant is determined depending on how much sun enters the balcony, that is, which side of the world it is looking at. Most cultures will feel good on the southeastern loggia, allowing you to organize a twelve-hour supply of natural light.
For the north side choose shade-like conifers, which can even be quite large if space allows. It is in this case about dwarf pine, thuja, canadian spruce or juniper. For a more aesthetic picture, they are complemented ivy, periwinkle or other ground cover. Evergreen boxwood in most cases, combined with violets or a cross.
A balcony with good lighting makes sense to fill with annuals, for example, petunias, asters, calendula, chrysanthemums, phlox or other common cultures. Popular biennials include Daisies and pansies. On arches and supports it is customary to develop a variety of loaches including sweet peas and decorative beans.
In the summertime, some indoor plants can also be taken out onto the balcony, for example, begonia or pelargonium, a variety of succulents and cacti. If the balcony is shady, then it is worth placing flowers such as fuchsia, cloves, verbena or even tobacco.
How to choose?
To choose the right blossoming inhabitants on the balcony, you must clearly understand what design is planned. The most convenient capacity for flowers is a box, the depth and width of which correspond to 180 millimeters, and the length reaches one meter. You can plant any flowers you like in it, regardless of their size and focusing only on the visual combination.
From ampelous plants it is better to take petunias, nasturtiums and fuchsiasthat look great and are not whimsical. For medium-sized balconies, horizontal gardening is more suitable, which means that plants located along the railing and walls should not be too large and heavy.
In small spaces, vertical flower beds filled with climbing or ground cover plants look better. There are no restrictions on large loggias, you can even create an alpine hill, a small rose garden or plant fairly large shrubs.
Suitable packaging
The overall picture of the design of the balcony will largely depend on what container the flowers and shrubs will be planted. You can plant plants in boxes and pots, but it’s important to choose green friends so that they are proportionate to the dimensions of the containers, and also adhere to the general style.
Plastic crates are the cheapest and besides, they help maintain moisture. Clay vessels give the plant the ability to "breathe", but the soil in them dries quickly, so the flowers will need more frequent watering.
Often flowers are planted in containers made from glazed ceramics. Such containers look attractive, but the plants themselves do not feel so good, since the soil in the container has a tendency to sour. To smooth out the situation, it is recommended to initially select a plastic container, place it in a ceramic, and then already land.
Wooden flower boxes are considered a stylish and environmentally friendly choice, besides, they can almost always be done with one's own hand and thereby save a lot of money. Best used for structures coniferous wood, and when planting flowers directly in a box, it is necessary to pre-treat it with a solution that impedes the development of putrefactive processes.
A regular plastic liner is also suitable.
Pursuing the additional decor of the container itself, it is better to give preference to light shades in order to avoid overheating of the root system. Vertical gardening is carried out using a variety of convenient designs, for example, canvas with pockets, which is easy to do with your own hands.
It will be enough to sew large fabric pockets on a dense canvas, and in them you can already place pots of a suitable size or plastic bags filled with seedlings. The design is fixed to the wall with the help of reliable hinges.
Do not do on the balcony without trellis, which is a backup for a variety of bindweed. The grill can be purchased at the store or made independently from cords or nets. Pot holders always look good, especially those equipped with vertical supports. Some of them have wheels, which greatly simplifies the process of watering or reorganizing the design.
Used on the balcony and the usual stairs, becoming a multi-tiered stand.
When choosing horizontal landscaping, containers are placed on shelves of racks or along the railing.
Accommodation options
You need to place flowers on the balcony in the summer in such a way as to take into account the size of the existing plants, their shape, and the color palette. First of all, the plan and facade of the balcony are drawn, and several possible options for placing containers are being developed.
At the same time, plants should not block each other's lighting or be in a draft, especially on an open balcony. Large pots are best placed on the floor of the loggia, and medium tanks or mounted on shelves, or attach from the outside to the outside of the balcony using a special cornice with a ring made of metal.
It is logical to place climbing crops or wood creepers on the wall or side of the balcony, next to the dividing wall. You can supplement the composition with open drawers that can be hung along the railing. Large tubs with tall bushes are placed in the corners. Inside a glazed balcony, even small ones, shelves mounted on parallel walls will look good. The wooden surface is left either in the most natural state or decorated with a self-adhesive film, acrylic paints or mosaics.
Good examples
A very beautiful and original balcony is obtained if you use an ordinary step-ladder to design it. Made of metal, it has sufficient reliability to accommodate a large number of diverse pots with plants. On each crossbar there are two pots of different colors and shapes with small-sized plants.
This composition is very bright and vibrant. In addition to the stairs, on the balcony there are hanging pots with blooming petunias fixed on the crossbars, as well as several pots of unusual shapes located on the pedestal.
On another balcony, unlike the first example, all used containers become an organic component of a holistic interior. All kinds of containers are used in the design - wall, table, heavy pots standing on the floor or stools, as well as containers that are fixed on the balcony bar.
Although not all pots are the same, they have a similar design or color. Most of the plants blooms, the composition also contains several indoor representatives of the flora.
The simplest option to ennoble a balcony space is placement of flowering specimens in elongated pots mounted on the balcony bar. In addition, you can place several compact pots on the shelf.
The following video tells how to design an open balcony.
