Balcony Garden in Chandigarh

A balcony on an upper floor of a tower in Zirakpur or Mohali gets more wind and more direct sun for longer than a ground-floor terrace, and that combination dries out planters faster than the same plants would dry at street level. We check which direction the balcony faces before choosing railing planters, vertical planters and the species that go in them, rather than using one layout for every unit in a building.

December and January frost is less severe on an upper floor than it is at ground level, but a balcony still loses more heat overnight than an indoor room, so tender plants on an exposed railing planter still need moving or covering on the coldest nights.

Making the most of a small footprint

Railing planters and vertical planters let a small balcony carry more plants than floor-standing pots alone would, and we plan the layout around what the balcony's railing and wall can structurally support before adding anything.

Wind, splash-back and the railing itself

A balcony on a higher floor in one of the newer towers along the Zirakpur or Mohali corridor gets steadier wind than a lower floor, and we plant a low wind-break of hardier foliage along the exposed edge to shelter more delicate flowering plants set behind it, rather than exposing everything equally to the wind.

Monsoon rain driven at an angle by wind can splash soil and water back onto the balcony floor and, on some designs, into the room behind it, and railing planters positioned and angled correctly reduce that splash-back considerably compared with pots simply lined up along the edge.