On the recent Saturday, Andrew Tan wrote a very useful and insightful article that was published on Straits Times Life! on how one can actually decorate a tiny high-rise balcony with plants. As revealed in his article, Andrew is drawing upon his own personal experience where he generously shared with the reader on how he landscaped his balcony on his own that was just seven newspaper broadsheets wide at his new place. I have been to Andrew’s place recently and his balcony garden was a masterpiece that impressed me.
One great tip that Andrew had for apartment gardeners was how one can make the best use of the little precious space in today’s tiny balconies. To maximise space so that one can pack as many plants as he can into a tidy space, Andrew suggested that we do ‘vertical gardening’. In his balcony, he fixed a black aluminium grille akin to those we use for our windows that blended very well with the wall on one side of the balcony. He then hang numerous pots of peperomias and dracaenas onto the frame. The plants he chose were variegated which contrast quite well against the dark back-drop. In effect, one covers a cold-looking wall with plants.
To confer a sense of space to a tidy growing area, one should consider throwing in a couple of large plant specimens. To do this, Andrew shoved in a dracaena and ficus tree into his balcony. Most of us, including myself, would have imagined that such inclusions would take up whatever available space from the already tidy balcony. The visual effect that was achieved as a result was really astonishing and contrary to our beliefs. Try it to know!
Most of balcony gardeners have the tendency to line their plants along the window ledge in a boring and monotonous row to catch the available light for one’s plants. I still vividly remember the terms that one of my gardening friends once used to call such gardens - ”farm” and “nursery”. Andrew’s balcony garden was a true garden. There is this element of aesthetics as you can see landscaping being done in the small space as shown by the thoughtful layering of healthy plants with different colours, leaf textures and heights.
I learnt alot from the earlier visit to Andrew’s place as well as from this recent article and the information gathered proved to be tremendously useful for me now as I have just moved into my new house where, for the first time in my life, I have a decent balcony to do gardening.
