Four square metres, facing south, with a stainless steel drying rack — that is the whole of her growing space. Over a year it supplies roughly a third of the household’s leafy vegetables.
The first two years, she says, were essentially failures, and for the same reason: drainage. "The tray under the pot looks tidy. What it actually does is drown the roots."
Work out where the water goes first
In the third year she changed the approach: every container raised five centimetres, a layer of clay pebbles at the base, and the trays replaced with shallow channels draining straight to the floor outlet.
Beginners agonise over which seeds to buy. What they should work out first is where the water goes.— The grower
Rotation beats variety
The second key is rotation. She divides the balcony into four zones and staggers sowing by growth cycle, so that two zones are always ready to harvest.
- Area: about 4 square metres, south-facing
- Output: roughly a third of household greens
- Key one: raised containers and clay pebble drainage
- Key two: four zones, staggered sowing
On varieties her advice is plain: start with quick-growing, forgiving leaf crops, build confidence, and think about fruiting vegetables later.
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