FoAM offered me to transform their small balcony into a Bioproductive site. It will allow me to practice gardening and garden design.

The balcony is facing East and South. Walls protect it from West and North. Thanks to its position at the last floor of the building, he gets sunlight during most of the day. He can also benefit from rainfalls, as it is not cover by a roof or another balcony.

I borrowed this fantastic book from Annemie's library, and extracted most of the following design principles from its deliciously-written pages.

Here are the design principles I will try to apply in the design of the Bioproductive Balcony:

• Big planters need less water: biggest pots & planters dry less quickly and need less watering.
• Small plants go in the front: place the smallest plants on the front of the balcony to avoid shading by taller ones.
• Place shade-tolerating plants behind sun-liking: place the shade-tolerating plants (mostly leaf- and root-vegetables) behind the sun-liking (mostly fruit-bearing plants).
• Apply companion planting: place plants benefiting from each other the one next to the other.
• Perform crop rotations: do not plant the same plants at the same spot all the time & make several harvests within one growing season.

Here are some sketches representing potential designs for the balcony.

I am looking for seeds, and I have a few of them to exchange too. Have a look at my seed library and get in touch with me (michka dot melo at gmail dot com) if you wish to get/exchange some.

On February 26th, I planted indoors the following seeds brought by Rasa:

• Three pots of Cornichon Vert Petit de Paris (small cucumbers)
• Three pots of black and purple Beans
• Two pots of Cherry Tomatoes
• Two pots of Green Peas
• One pot of Bio Brocoli Vert (broccoli)
• One pot of Garlic
• One pot of Pak choi Taisai
• One pot of Epinard Matador (spinach)

On March 3rd, I planted indoors the following seeds bought at Fraternités Ouvrières's garden:

• One pot of Aubergine Ronde de Valence (eggplant).
• One pot of Concombre Vyaznikosku (cucumber)
• One pot of Lentille Verte (Lentils)
• One pot of Poivron King of the North (pepper)
• One pot of Poivron Doux Chocolat (pepper)
• One pot of Piment Hot Cherry (chili)
• One pot of Tournesol Géant (sunflower)
• One pot of Tomate Jaune Yellow Belgium (yellow tomato)
• One pot of Tomate Blanche Douce de Picardie (white tomato)
• One pot of Tomate de Bonne Garde New Zealand Paste Pink (pink tomato)
• One pot of Tomate Grimpante De Bearo (creeping tomato)

On March 4th, I planted indoors the following seeds bought at Fraternités Ouvrières's garden:

• One pot of Basilic Pesto (basil)
• One pot of Réglisse Française (liquorice)
• One pot of Stevia Stevie
• One pot of Verveine Officinale (verbena)
• One pot of Saponaire (cockle)

On March 25th, I planted indoors many others seeds (156 exactly). Detailed report is coming…

I am currently researching on sewing growing bags out of unusable grocery bags. I ended up sewing one out of a similar plastic fabric found in FoAM's storage space. This bag is now the main growing space on the balcony, and the first radishes planted there are thriving !

I started direct sowing of a few vegetables on the balcony. Here are the information I gathered to sow Céléri à couper and Carottes.

I also looked for diverse self-watering systems designs. I tried diverse systems, based on ropes, pieces of fabrics, and plastic bottles, and have not found a very efficient one yet.

Water flows slowly from the bottle to the soil through the rope, by capillarity. It works but does not waters the soil enough.

It is supposed to work almost the same way as the rope-based system, but does not seem to be as efficient - it may be a design issue. A new version made of a continuous piece of fabric - and not small ones tied up together - should be tried out.

I found this design on Youtube. It works well (as long as you do not don't forget to plug the bottle correctly). However, the soil was too soggy with this system.

After these failures, Rasa offered me to take care of the seedlings when I am away, and I am very grateful to her !

After dramatic death of my first seedlings during a windy day, I started to think about how to protect the plants on the balcony from the wind. I have currently installed a piece of transparent plastic and some glass windows as windshields. I may move towards a system based on plastic bottles.

• Fraternités Ouvrières, Mouscron
• Graines de Troc website
• Plant Catching website
• From friends

As I have quite a lot of wall surface, I would like to grow many creepers.

• Cucumbers
• Creeping-tomatoes
• Beans
• Small squashes

• Radish
• Salads - especially varieties with continuous growth

• Peppers
• Egg-plants

• Garlic
• Green onions
• Chives
• Thyme
• Rosemary