When we started househunting last April, I never imagined we were going to have a garden. I envisaged growing a few lettuces in a window box, and maybe even some herbs on the kitchen windowsill. So when we found a house with a large fire escape and small balcony, I was thrilled that I would be able to grow a great deal more veg than I imagined. Never mind the garden at the bottom of those steps.

Fire escapes are not the most romantic of settings for a garden: you’re unlikely to find one in a glossy garden magazine any time soon. But for many people, they are the biggest outdoor space available. I happen to think they are an excellent outdoor space which should not be neglected, which is why I recorded a guest podcast for the Alternative Kitchen Garden.

If you are wondering what to grow on a balcony, here’s a little factsheet which may help you. In the meantime, here’s a round-up of my own balcony garden.

Chard ‘Bright Lights’, grown for the winter. One of the benefits of growing leafy veg on a balcony is that slugs and snails are absent. So no nibbled veg. That said, I only grow lettuces as cut-and-come again crops on the balcony, as they find the drying winds a little stressful, and never really heart out successfully.

My peas are still cropping happily, but the recent high temperatures have meant they have been a little stressed. Peas grown on balconies require a great deal more water than those in the ground, particularly when in flower and producing pods.

Bell pepper flowers.

San Marzano plum tomatoes cropping enthusiatically. We have underplanted these with basil (purple, neapolitan, lemon and genovese) and marigolds. This reduces evaporation from the soil surface, deters pests, and makes the most of the space available.

We also grow French tarragon, silver thyme and lemon thyme on the balcony. Herbs love the dry, warm air, and being able to pick them from the back door is a real bonus as well.

It is on the balcony that I use my newspaper pots. These would look terribly silly in the garden, but against the black-painted fire escape, they look fun and quirky.