Hi! I'm new to gardening and have had so much fun in the past couple months growing things (well, trying to grow things anyway :)) in containers. I live in an apartment and have a covered balcony that faces NW, so it receives about 3 hours of sun in the evening. However, as the season progresses, the sliver of sun is getting less and less so my annuals are now scrunched together desperately trying to soak up something :) They looked pretty pathetic to begin with, and now it's really a sad state of affairs :) I think most of them like lots of sun...or at least morning sun.
Soooooo, I've decided to be a shade gardener! My question is... is a covered balcony considered "shade"? Or, is a covered balcony more like "indoors"? Come to think of it.... what exactly is considered "shade"? Will all shade plants grow indoors? and etc... :)
Any advice for my balcony?
Thanks, Ellianor
balcony...shade???
Ellianor,
Most houseplants like deep shade so that the direct sun part of the year would probably not be good for them. Most of them also like temperate (not freezing) conditions. I grow quite a lot of things in the ground here that are considered houseplants elsewhere. Are you game to bringing them inside in the winter or do you want to leave them on the balcony?
I'm a beginning hosta grower but I imagine that this is a fine place for hosta and ferns, depending on the fern and how often you want to move it.
There are plants grown as annuals that like the shade. All kinds of impatiens for instance, and fuchsias. You can probably get some of the hardy fuchsias to winter over. Next time you go to the garden center look in the shade section. There are a lot of foliage plants too.
You have so many choices that it's hard to even begin. I would drop by the hosta forum and the container gardening forum for some ideas. Of course, don't leave here!