How to Make the Best Out of Your Balcony
Whether it's a spacious rooftop terrace or a small city balcony, eco-friendly gardening and living can be done in almost any outdoor space for better feng shui. All it takes is the right planting and equipment, and you can enjoy your hobbies on your balcony, like reading, gardening, or even having fun in a live casino online.
Not only indoors can be provided for environmentally friendly furnishings, but also outdoors all sorts of things are possible to protect the environment, people and animals. With the right planting, lighting and balcony furnishings, you can transform your outdoor living room into a sustainable balcony where you can play at the best Aviator game site in India in a few steps.
OUR HELPFUL LIST FOR YOUR WELL-BEING
1. Use rainwater as irrigation
If you're lucky enough to have a spacious balcony, this provides the ideal conditions for a small rain barrel. After all, plants love nothing more than natural, lime-free rainwater that is rich in nutrients. Tap water from the faucet - especially in big cities - on the other hand is often very chalky. Plants not infrequently have to put up with the hard, nutrient-poor water with brown spots on their leaves.
In a small rain barrel with a capacity of about 30 liters, the potential watering water of tomorrow is optimally collected. For small balconies can alternatively resort to buckets and watering cans. In parallel, even stale tap water, in which the lime has already been deposited somewhat, is much softer and more digestible for plants.
2. Self-supply balcony for fruit and vegetable growing
Planter box for growing vegetables on the balcony self-sufficiency is in, which is why more and more raised beds, planter boxes and tubs can be found on balconies:
If you miss the full-bodied taste of fruits and vegetables and are also rather critical of their import, a self-catering balcony is a good idea. In addition to balcony boxes and planters, raised beds in particular have gained significant popularity in recent years. So, if the area and also the load-bearing capacity of the balcony allow it, these are a real option. Plants can root well here.
Popular are spinach, zucchini, tomatoes, kohlrabi, potatoes, radishes and lettuce. However, it is important to find out in advance which plants are compatible with each other. Plant ladders and steps can also be helpful in growing smaller varieties such as cress or berries. To make planting as sustainable as possible, it is advisable to use peat-free potting soil. Peat extraction is used to drain bogs, which gradually destroys the habitat of many plant and animal species.
3. Environmentally friendly fertilizer
An adequate supply of nutrients is the most important thing for a flowering and productive balcony planting. For a sustainably designed balcony, it is advisable to resort to natural fertilizer instead of synthetic means. This is in so far in the expenditure simple and inexpensive, because it needs in principle only waste products, which result anyway daily: Coffee grounds, unsalted potato or vegetable water, mortared eggshells, banana residues or even rhubarb leaves.
Only compost is even more sustainable because it is richer in nutrients. With so-called worm composters, which are small and thus space-saving for the balcony, biowaste is decomposed by the small creatures, gradually creating natural fertilizer.
4. Sustainable balcony furniture
To outfit a balcony with sustainable furniture, wood is always a good choice as it represents wood in the feng shui 5 elements. However, not all wood is the same. Often, outdoor furniture is made from rather questionable tropical woods such as teak or even acacia. Their mostly illegal clearing also destroys large areas of species-rich virgin forest. In addition, both woods have to travel a long way to Europe.
Instead, it is better to use domestic woods such as beech, oak or chestnut for your at home patio furniture. Ideally, the table and seat set should have the FSC seal, which stands for sustainable forestry. To ensure that the wood remains permanently weather-resistant, it is important to regularly oil the material. And even if pallet furniture is no longer completely natural, its versatile use conserves important resources.
5. Climate-friendly decorating
Romanticism meets sustainability: recycled glass can be optimally used as a candle holder.
On a contemplative balcony belongs quite clearly also atmospheric decoration. Ideally, these should also have as little impact on the environment as possible. When it comes to lighting, empty bottles and stained glass jars are ideal as tea light and candle holders. Because many conventional candles still contain petroleum or palm oil, it is better to use sustainable products. With organic candles made from rapeseed, soy or beeswax, the market already offers some climate-friendly alternatives.
Tea lights are now also available in glass or without aluminum bowls, which gives them a much better environmental balance. In addition, the outdoor living room also requires some textiles in the sense of coziness. Especially outdoor carpets are often made of synthetic fibers, so as to be particularly weather-resistant. However, models made of recycled fibers such as PET would be better. Even more sustainable for balcony design are floor textiles made of jute, even if the natural fiber defies rain much less than its plastic counterpart.
6. Bee-friendly planting
Insect hotel on the sustainable balcony. Colorful planting and bee hotels on the balcony are not only beautiful to look at, they also protect the environment at the same time.
When it comes to making your own balcony sustainable for people and animals, what you need above all is bee-friendly planting. Especially in cities, bees and co. are finding it increasingly difficult to survive as habitat and food become scarcer. In order to protect insects from extinction, it is advisable to plant as colorful a balcony as possible with perennials, flowers and herbs.
Classics such as geraniums, petunias and sunflowers, but also verbena, lavender and daisies are considered insect-friendly. However, the ideal planting is one in which bees, bumblebees and other pollinators can nest and survive even in winter. Therefore, it is advisable to cut back some plants only in the spring. Also popular with hobbyists and bees are insect hotels, which can alternatively be bought at the hardware store. Position this gladly near the balcony planting.