A Balcony Salad Garden in Four Pots

Picture a bowl of salad where every leaf was cut ten feet from your kitchen. A balcony can do that. It will not feed you every day, but four well-chosen pots can supply many salads from spring through early autumn.

This guide gives you a simple four-pot plan, step-by-step planting and a weekly routine. It assumes a balcony that gets at least four to six hours of direct sun. If yours gets less, the plan still works with more leafy crops and fewer tomatoes.

Why these four pots

A salad needs a base, a bite, a lift and something juicy. Each pot covers one of those jobs.

Pot one: lettuce. The base. A wide, shallow container of cut-and-come-again lettuce, around 12 inches across or a long window box.

Pot two: radishes and scallions. The bite. Radishes mature in about four weeks, and scallions grow slowly alongside them.

Pot three: herbs. The lift. Parsley, chives and a little dill or mint add flavor to every bowl.

Pot four: a cherry tomato. The juicy part. One compact plant in a pot holding around 5 gallons. It is the only crop here that truly needs full sun.

Set up your balcony

Find the sunniest spot, usually at the railing on a south or west side. Put the tomato where it gets the most sun and the lettuce where it gets a bit of relief from the hot afternoon, such as behind the tomato.

Check how much weight your balcony can hold. A large pot of wet soil is heavy, and your landlord or building manager can tell you the limit. Put pots on the floor, and keep them clear of exits. If the wind is strong, a low screen or a sheltered corner saves stems from snapping.

Pots that hold water in a reservoir are handy if you travel, but a simple pot and saucer works fine.

Plant the four pots

When to plant depends on where you live. Lettuce and radishes like cool weather, so they go in around the last spring frost or a little before, and again in late summer. Tomatoes need warm nights and go out after frost danger has passed. Your local cooperative extension office can give you the frost dates for your area.

The weekly routine

Each morning, look at the pots. In summer heat, small pots may need water every day. Push a finger into the soil, and if the top inch is dry, water until a little runs out the bottom.

Once a week, harvest. Take the outer leaves of the lettuce, leaving the center to grow. Pull radishes when the shoulders are about the size of a quarter. Snip herbs, and pick tomatoes when fully colored.

Every few weeks, a diluted liquid plant food helps the tomato most. Follow the label. If lettuce stretches up and tastes bitter in the heat, it has bolted, so pull it out and sow again when it cools.

Pitfalls to expect

• Pots drying out. The most common failure. Choose larger pots and mulch the soil with a thin layer of straw or shredded leaves.
• Too little sun for the tomato. If your balcony gets less than six hours, skip it and add a second lettuce pot.
• Aphids and other bugs. A sharp spray of water often knocks small insects off. Check under leaves each week.
• Overcrowding. Seedlings need room. Thin early.
• Bolting lettuce. Heat and long days trigger it. Replace plants rather than fighting it.

A bowl from the balcony

When the lettuce is ready, you will have enough for a bowl in about four to six weeks from sowing. Here is the first one to make.

To make it a supper, add a boiled egg and a slice of bread. The seasonal plates have more ideas for turning a bowl of greens into a meal.

Keep going

If your balcony turns out to be dim, what to grow when you have almost no space has options for lower light. If you are weighing a bed against pots, pots vs raised beds lays out the trade-offs. And for pots you can start indoors this week, see a windowsill herb garden.