Decoration of the balcony with flowers

With the advent of the warm season, the stone jungles of megacities are filled with bright colors, including delightful flowers on the balcony. Designers offer many interesting ways to design balconies and loggias with vegetation, but the optimal option depends on many factors. On 2-3 square meters of a city balcony to create a small green island to everyone on forces. Flowers and plants do not necessarily take root in hanging flowerpots and flower boxes, there are many original techniques to decorate the balcony for the summer.

Where to start decorating a balcony?

Before starting the process of landscaping, it is important to decide in advance which flowers to put on the balcony and evaluate all the possibilities:

• whether there is enough free area and planes for hanging boxes and pots for flowers;
• there is enough light for normal plant growth;
• what will be the overall design style;
• how to use a refined balcony;
• balcony open or glazed;
• is there a desire to see the same plants or give preference to changing seasonal vegetation?

• First, we determine the type of balcony and its possibilities, since the spacious glazed loggia and narrow barred balcony are decorated differently. The thoughtful decoration of the balcony with flowers allows the maximum number of colors to be used to transform a small corner of the apartment. It will be the best place for a pleasant stay or a creative pastime.

Tip: A country house with landscape design will complement the noble dot landscaping. A gray facade with balconies in a typical layout house will decorate the grille with climbing plants on the south side, granting a shadow. Framed by hanging boxes with fragrant flowers, the perimeter of a simple balcony will emphasize the individuality of the owners of the apartment or house. Fragrant flowers on the balcony of the first floor will help smell the smell from the basement of the common house or from other unpleasant sources.

• Cooking space for plants. Our compatriots have this part of the apartment reserved for storing rarely used items. And most foreign citizens have a balcony more like a green oasis for rest. By the way, fashion for gardening small balconies came from Venice, where there is an excess of dampness from proximity to canals. Suspended pots and boxes for strongly smelling flowers and spicy spices were used for natural aeration: drafts dragged all these flavors into the apartments of townspeople. This custom quickly picked up the whole of Europe - flowers on the balcony photo.

Tip: It's sensible to begin upgrading the balcony with a revision - throw out the trash, sort the tools in boxes, use seldom used items away from the eyes. Flowers can also be used for masking purposes - the side wall of the balcony with a working tool will well hide the lattice with climbing plants or a collection of violets. Large pots and pots with rare plants divert attention from objects that have nowhere else to store. Decorative curly flowers for the balcony can be surrounded by an armchair or a chaise longue, and also fenced off the rest area from the corner-workshop.

• When deciding how to decorate a balcony with flowers, it is important to minimize the permissible load on the balcony. Please note that plants, metal parts for fastening flower boxes, pots, flowerpots and pots with the soil and decorative stones filling them - an additional 100-300 kg, especially after abundant watering of flowers.

Tip: The easier it is to arrange balcony landscaping, the more space and the aesthetic feel more pleasant, so do not overload it with large drawers and tubs. Give preference to plants that have a small root system with abundant flowering. It is important to periodically check the reliability of securing shelves, containers and pots. Check pallets for surplus water from watering - it is important that their contents do not flow to the heads of neighbors and does not create prerequisites for mold, especially when there is access to rain watering on an open balcony.

• The style of decorating a balcony with flowers plays a decisive role - often the minimal number of plantations creates the maximum effect. It is important to dwell on the option that will be most appropriate in your circumstances. The glazed balcony is used not only for rest, but also as a functional area.

Tip: Living plants and fragrant flowers noticeably ennoble and balcony-workshop, and a place to work at the computer, and a dining area around a small console where it's nice to have dinner together in the summer.

• The balcony is able to replace a small garden if sown curly parsley and dill near the flowers and put a bow-pen in the pendant boxes. You can also add racks of strawberries and decorative forms of Dutch-grown vegetables grown only on balconies: Bulgarian pepper, tomatoes, cucumbers and curled beans.

Advice: Special seed is ordered by catalog. Specially derived forms of vegetable crops for balconies not only take up little space and do not require much ground for the root system. Balcony vegetables look very beautiful at different stages - seedlings, flowering, fruiting. However, for an abundant harvest, it is important to observe the technology of their cultivation in specially prepared soil with obligatory top dressing. But in this case it is also important that the balcony be properly decorated with flowers.

Ways to design a balcony with

colors 1. Depending on the type of facade of the building, a thoughtful floral arrangement will help to refine, draw attention to a certain part of it or distract from non-aesthetic areas.

• smooth, inconspicuous facade is well decorated with flowers placed along geometric lines;
• smooth lines in the architecture of the building can be decorated with asymmetry or dotted large suspended flowerpots and flower baskets;
• if two balconies are combined into a single line or one long bends around the corner of a multi-storey building, the containers should not be hung along the rails in all lengths;
• effectively looks combined design, where all the planes are used - vases, boxes and pots on the floor, shelves on the wall of the house, hanging pots on the ceiling plane, etc.

2. If there is no clear certainty with what flowers to grow on the balcony, then notIt is worth hurrying to buy everything or put out all the indoor plants from the apartment. Certainly, they will benefit from the abundance of natural light and rain watering, but do not forget that pets are not able to withstand the gusts of wind to the scorching sun and temperature changes. Their stay on an open balcony should be sporadic, they are not considered as the main filling of open balconies. But in the glassed room, indoor flowers for the summer on the balcony will be very appropriate - pelargonium, aloe, violets, cyclamen, begonia, etc.

3. Special attention should be paid to curly and clinging plants that are successfully used in vertical gardening. They are able to turn an ordinary balcony into a kind of abundantly blooming garden gazebo or ivy-twisted English courtyard. By the way, ivy is an ideal plant for planting open balconies, it does not need a lot of fertile soil and ideal conditions. With him it does not matter how to decorate the balcony with flowers - a dark green background of graceful ivy leaves will advantageously shade 3-4 vases with petunia and other bright summer plantations. And when they fade, ivy can be left on the balcony before the first frost, and then cut off the largest layers and allow to winter in the apartment.

4. Green oasis of southern exotic - great for glazed loggia or balcony on the south or west side of the house, where there is a lot of light and heat. Domestic lemons and tangerines, money trees, "palm trees" and other plants with "southern appearance" will suit here. If you do not know what flowers to plant on the balcony with this type of gardening, consider that they should be in harmony with the rest of the tropics.

5. Japanese garden bonsai on the balcony - this is one of the most exquisite methods of landscaping glazed balcony. Dwarf trees in containers and flat bowls with fleshy succulents among the stones will be the main decoration of this part of the apartment in the Japanese style. For the general impression add pendant pots with a full-colored form of pink petunia, reminiscent of cherry blossoms. Flat screened curtains in Japanese style with prints in the form of hieroglyphs will complete the overall design.

6. Drought-resistant succulents in flat containers with stones are also well suited for balconies, where voluminous flowers are undesirable. For example, when there are several small children in the family, and a lot of laundry is often dried on the balcony. These plants are well tolerated, when they forget to water or break into pieces, they will quickly put roots in a glass of water and take root again. The second option, when the glazed balcony is used as a fitness corner, and many voluminous flowering plants are inappropriate here. Small flowers on the balcony will fit in with any design.

Tip: Succulents are the ideal plants for any room, besides they are surprisingly beautiful blossoms, but they are liked by gnawing cats. Therefore, it makes sense to place them in an inaccessible place, and it is better for pets to sow a special herb in a container for vitamins, if cats are not on the street.

7. One of the most difficult ways to design a balcony with flowers is all-season, that is, to pick plants in such a way that they will gladden the eye all year round.

• spring: bulbous flowers of early spring flowering and primroses;
• summer: most annual flowers and perennials;
• autumn: asters, dahlias, chrysanthemums;
• winter: miniature coniferous plants with decorative cones and other fruits.

8. The type of lighting and climatic conditions also affect the way the balcony is landscaped with flowers and ornamental plants.

• Most of the flowers on the balcony of the north side is not suitable, but in the southern latitudes will come to life wild grapes, sweet peas, phlox;
• plants do not take root in the northern latitudes on open balconies, and even on the southern side of the glassed-in loggia, they may not have enough light;
• half-shadow like petunia, nasturtium pelargonium;
• on drafts of the upper floors, low-growth forms of such plants as clearing, lawn grass, marigolds, daisies, etc.;
• flowers on the balcony from the sunny side - well-planted perennial perennial and planted plants.

Selection of drawers and pots for balcony flowers

Customized containers for planting flowers can help to beautifully decorate an open or glazed balcony:

• a conventional trough can be pasted with a colored mosaic made of broken ceramic tiles, planted with liquid nails; the gaps can be filled with a conventional cement mix with the addition of PVA building adhesiveor building sealant;
• the same ceramic pots can be painted in different colors for more decorative;
• the old volumetric dish without handles will ennoble with a cord, string or rope, laid tightly in a spiral;
• boxes for balcony flowers can be knocked off independently of the scraps of the beam, which can be ordered in any carpentry workshop - they are painted in a natural invoice;
• unexpected variants from rubber children's boots or old garden leeks have long become a "classic" of garden ornaments, and these finds are successfully used for decoration of balconies.

Advice: It is important to note that pots, baskets, boxes, pots, vases and containers for balcony flowers are selected for specific plants. It is prudent to choose their shape, size and their total number depending on how they look from the outside( an open balcony), and inside a closed territory. Do not abuse the depth of the boxes, if it does not require a developed measles plant system - better to focus on nutrient soil with top dressing. The soil is changed once a year, preferably in the early spring or autumn, when the flowers degrade. Most flowers are missing 15-25 cm.

Care for balcony plants

If the containers for filling the balcony with flowers are filled with properly prepared soil, then the care for the plants will be minimal. It boils down to timely watering, sprinkling and top dressing as needed. Flowers in pots are placed on well-strengthened stands or hinged frames for boxes, so that they can not accidentally be overturned and dropped from the balcony. It is important that the plants are not cramped, there is enough heat and light, taking into account their growth and abundant flowering.

You can not save on the quality of the soil, although some can be grown hydroponically - on a nutritious aqueous solution. Succulents are suitable for depleted stony soil. Many flowers prefer a mixture of soil and sand, fertilized with peat, but its sour medium is not acceptable for all plants, so a crushed egg shell is added there.

The fertilizing of plants should not be done too often, they need it in a period of rapid flowering or fruiting. Balcony forms of vegetable crops are fed with various fertilizers according to the technology of cultivation, depending on the stage of development. Most young plants need regular and abundant watering, except for the inhabitants of the desert. Tropical forms must be sprayed in the morning and in the evening, but not under scorching rays, so that drip microlenses do not lead to burns of tender leaves.

Ideas for interior decoration on the balcony

1. A small balcony should not be cluttered with a large number of pots and containers, it is enough to confine ourselves to small boxes along the outer perimeter with hanging plants of abundant flowering. You can add 2 pots at the corners under the ceiling and 2-3 tall pots with bushy ornamental plants or confine one flat stand to houseplants. Supplement the furnishings with folding furniture or stackable plastic chairs and a folding table top.

2. A relaxation room on a spacious balcony can be decorated as an outdoor terrace, where all the planes are used for landscaping with different colors. But it's important not to overdo it and stick to one style. The furniture is suitable even for a small double sofa, including a pendant. If the hosts spend a lot of time here in the summer, resting after a hard day, it is worthwhile to plant a night violet in containers for the delicious aroma that she gives all night. In such an environment, a small electric grill and a coffee maker in the table area, as well as woven garden furniture with soft cushions, are also appropriate.