How to grow plants in the closet

There are many people who love crunchy, healthy vegetables or one few fresh herbs would grow for the kitchen instead of constantly having to feed on industrially produced food. But the garden is missing for your own rearing. However, that does not have to mean that parsley, cucumber or aromatic tomatoes have to be avoided entirely for as long a balcony is available or at least a few light-flooded window sills are free in the rented apartment.

Mini in size, maxi in yield

There is space in the smallest hut and in principle, even on the narrowest balcony and with simple means, you can grow many of the common types of vegetables yourself. But a greenhouse on the balcony (?), One or the other might ask. Yes, that is possible and, as with the larger models, you can buy the little mini oases ready-made, or, which is even more fun, assemble them yourself cheaply or for free.

Special features of the balcony minis

Since space is tight, a greenhouse on the balcony becomes priority:

• for growing young plants (cuttings) from seeds;
• for growing small vegetables (Pickled lettuce, radishes, tomatoes, cucumbers and peppers would be conceivable);
• serve to create an assortment of fresh herbs (for eating or as tea).

In principle, plants behave in Small greenhouses are naturally no different from those in the large ones. Since a balcony greenhouse usually does not have heating, the usage time is essentially limited to the frost-free part of the year. But let's go a little deeper and simply rename our greenhouse on the balcony, "greenhouse cabinet" and combine it with a free window sill in the house.

Grow vegetables on balconies

Take an old kitchen cabinet (if necessary, a top part is sufficient), which ideally has one or, better, two glass cabinet doors. You can often find this basic equipment in your own attic. If not: Just ask friends or acquaintances about it and if you still have no success, looks into the classifieds market of his local newspaper or goes to a flea market in the Vicinity. Anyone who has found what they are looking for assembles their new one Mini greenhouse(€ 17.21 at Amazon *) with dowels and sufficiently long screws exactly on the balcony wall on the the most intense sunlight during the day is to be expected. In our photo, instead of hanging on the balcony, the cupboard hangs under a covered porch that is open on one side.

Growing plants in a tomato cup

In our example, empty plastic cups are taken from mini tomatoes (250 grams with four-hole plastic lids) used, which is filled with a mixture of garden soil, compost and sand to about three centimeters below the edge are. To be on the safe side, two seeds were placed in each bowl and then covered. After watering very cautiously and removing the caps several times a week, the first green leaves came to light very tentatively after seven days.

Climatic conditions in the greenhouse for balconies

• to start with day and night under protection (with a cap) in a closed cupboard.
• After five more days in sunshine without a cap and with the cabinet door open as well as little irrigation water.
• After a further two weeks, the plants come only at night in the closet.
• Finally, a good five weeks after sowing, it goes out into the field.

Whereby “Freiland” means these very practical yellow plastic boxes from Deutsche Post, which were kindly made available to the author.

Instead of these transport containers, other containers, such as wooden fruit boxes, can of course be used, which fit on every balcony and also look very decorative. Not to mention the aromatic scent of the plants, which is really unique.

The tomatoes can develop even better on the (prepared) compost heap. The disadvantage here, however, are the larger amounts of precipitation, which especially tend to lead to the dreaded brown rot shortly before harvest. However, these tomato plants were not grown from commercially available seeds, but were a gift (so-called "old" varieties and disease-resistant) from a breeder.

Greenhouse, balcony, fresh insecticide-free vegetables?

Runs, you can say and works in the smallest of spaces, with little work but certainly with a lot of fun on YOUR balcony. And the question of costs? One can confidently neglect if one walks through the world with open eyes. Even the work that such a greenhouse miniature entails is hardly worth mentioning, because the taste of the first sel home grown tomatoes also compensates for the greatest effort.