Living in a big city like Montreal has its ups and downs. For example, we both miss the open spaces of the countryside and having a garden to grow our own plants and vegetables. This feeling is exacerbated by my sister-in-law who is lucky enough to live in the French Loire Valley in a cute house with a gigantic garden. She has apples, cherries and prunes growing.
Well, lucky for us, Montreal is a city of balconies. Even more lucky, our balcony is not on the street but on a private backyard, which means we have calm and green surrounding this outdoor extravaganza. In our previous apartment, the balcony was huge! However, it was facing North, meaning we had about 3 hours of direct sunlight in the middle of the summer. We still managed to have thyme, rosemary, stevia, sage and some flowers survive there. We also tried green peas, and they did work, to the great joy of our next door neighbor: the squirrel. At one point we even had strawberries.
To have a great balcony with a lot of sunshine was one of our greatest selection criteria when we were looking for an apartment. This paid off as we found a great apartment, facing South this time, with a sun bathed balcony!
As the winter is still reluctantly leaving Montreal, we had to start sprouting indoors. This years we are going for sun-loving plants: tomatoes (all colors) and Calendula are starting their growth inside. When the weather will be better, we will also try out beans, carrots and beets. We are so excited to see these babies grow, and we will keep you posted on how it goes!
Do you have any experience growing vegetables on a balcony?
My Lighthearted Kitchen 
I love how the baby plants reach for the sun.
Aren’t they adorable? I keep on turning them slightly everyday to try and have straight tomatoes… 🙂