Growing food in this small balcony space is indeed awesome but the reality is that, it may just not be the best idea. Fogging occurs frequently and it is also noted that the gardener sprays chemical (especially into the planter boxes) to combat termites around the property. So when the project brief came in to enliven this space as a balance between aesthetics and function, it was both challenging but interesting.

Pretty but still edible in a safe way and yet functional? The client happens to have a farm out of town and since he is not going to be always at the farm, he needed a space to nurture seedlings before bringing them to the farm. This is the first objective. A place to observe and care for plants before transplanting.

Secondly, he wanted the place to look pretty with beautiful but functional flowers: flowers that attract honey bees. Once the flowers wilt and die, the seeds will be propagated back at the farm. Flowers add color and a dash of energy to the setup.

Thirdly, he wanted a lush presence of various plants to mimic a food forest environment as a live educational site for children. With a young toddler in tow, the green balcony space would be a great spot for observation, learning and interaction with nature.

There are actually two balconies for this ground-floor condo unit; the photos shown here are only depicting one balcony. Work will only begin on this one balcony first before moving to the other.

At the moment, we’ve setup raised beds (~ 1 feet depth) with bricks in the planter boxes on both sides of the balcony. We have also placed some small logs into the raised beds to slow release nutrients from its decomposition. It also serves to reduce the amount of soil we need to pour in.

The other raised bed to the right has a water source. This is where we intend to put a small compost bin fashioned from a flower pot. 

The existing decorative vegetation will be kept for use as mulch when the client chops drops himself to prune them.

That’s it for now. We would be working on this over a couple of weeks and will be updating on the go.