Essential equipment for gardening on your balcony

Preparing for planting

Choose containers suited to your space

On a balcony, if there is one thing a gardener cannot do without, it is containers to install their plants! Pots, troughs, hanging baskets or window boxes are essential because container growing is then the only solution. Your plants need to be happy in small, well-adapted containers. Terracotta, plastic or composite materials, tall or short – available in all sizes – colourful or understated, there is every kind.

Les pots en terre cuite, porous, ont l’avantage de garder the water puis de la restituer à la plant lorsque la motte commence à sécher et l’air peut circuler à travers la wall. Inconvénient : ils sont forcément plus lourds que les pots en plastique, et de gros volumes ne sont pas à privilégier sur un balcon car difficiles à transporter (surtout sans ascenseur) et à déplacer une fois remplis. Pensez aussi à vous faciliter les opérations de rempotage !

We recommend plastic pots (polypropylene) more: much cheaper, lighter and easier to handle than terracotta pots. They are also very frost-resistant and available in every colour, size and shape. Drawback: colour may fade more or less quickly in the sun.

Zinc containers are also very attractive and lightweight.

Growing plants in lightweight pots also makes it possible to move them as you wish and to brighten your balcony with a splash of colour. A large, brightly coloured pot will create an interesting focal point. For an effective display, play with sizes and shapes of your containers but ideally opt for the same material type for a more pleasing effect.

Another option is growing in bags. For more information, read Ingrid’s article: Urban vegetable garden: it’s all in the bag!

→ To help you choose, read Olivier’s article: Plastic, biodegradable or terracotta pot.

Protect yourself!

A good pair of gardening gloves is never too much because balcony gardening can be quite messy. There are many models in different sizes. Prefer lightweight, very flexible gloves coated with natural non-slip latex. They will allow you to carry out all your small gardening tasks: weeding, cleaning, repotting, watering and planting. They will protect your hands from moisture, dirt, and possible scrapes and cuts. If you have roses in pots, choose gloves specifically designed for pruning roses and small thorny plants, which do not let sharp thorns through.

→  Discover our collection of gloves

To work the soil

Hand hoe

The hand hoe is an essential tool when gardening, even without a garden! It’s a double-headed, multi-purpose tool: digging, weeding or hoeing, it is versatile. Opt for a model with a «panne and claw» which will let you dig small holes, hoe, weed by scraping the soil surface, and trace furrows to aerate soil between plants thanks to its two or three U-shaped tines. A flower hand hoe with a short handle and a forked head is ideal for working soil in small spaces, particularly in raised plantings such as raised vegetable beds, or in flower boxes.

→ Discover our hand hoes

Hand claw

A small garden claw, sometimes called garden fork, cultivator, pick-claw or hoe, is indispensable for aerating and weeding soil on small areas and between delicate plants, for example in window boxes and raised vegetable beds. With its forked head fitted with three or four sharp, curved tines, it enables raking, scraping and scuffing to dislodge weeds around small vegetable plants, in flower boxes or bushes. If you plan to create a small urban vegetable garden, it will also loosen and prepare the soil before planting or sowing. To maintain your balcony plantings, choose a small traditional model with a short handle.

→ Discover our range of hand claws and hand forks

For sowing

Sowing your own plants and vegetables on a simple balcony is feasible! Buckets, seed trays or a mini-greenhouse – for successful sowing of vegetable plants, perennial or annual flowers on your balcony, it is essential to have suitable equipment.

Small pots and seed trays!

Whether for sowing or pricking out, you will need buckets for your sowing. Prefer plastic pots or buckets available in several sizes and colours, or better still biodegradable or biocompostable pots made from wood fibres, an excellent ecological alternative. After emergence of the young plants that have developed, these 100% biodegradable pots can be planted directly into the soil where they will decompose. Clever and practical when space is limited, as there is no need to store them after use!

→Find our selection of pots and buckets for sowing in our online nursery and our biocompostable and biodegradable pots.

Equally practical to use, also consider biodegradable growing sheets. Made up of numerous alveolate growing cells in a single piece, they prove very useful for sowing young vegetable plants or young flower plants: seeds are sown in them, then after emergence the buckets are separated from one another and placed directly into the soil where they will decompose. Once again, no more storage issues.

→Find our terrines, trays, racks and alveolate seed trays in our online nursery.

Mini-greenhouses

Topped with a transparent plastic roof, mini-greenhouses create a very favourable micro-climate (warmth, humidity) for germination and growth of sowing. They allow you to gain valuable weeks on emergence! We offer several types, and even, most suitable for small spaces, sowing kits composed of a greenhouse and a growing sheet made from biodegradable wood fibres. A mini-greenhouse can be placed indoors near a window and a radiator. Once seedlings have developed, simply separate the buckets from one another and plant them directly into the soil. Some models have vents on the lid, other mini-greenhouses are heated: just plug them into a power socket.

→Find our mini-greenhouses in our online nursery.

To plant

Transplanting trowel is a small, sharpened hand shovel. It is used to dig planting holes precisely to place bulbs, seeds or to transplant (hence the name) or lift small clumps of annuals or perennials, such as flowering or aromatic plants, for example. It is also useful for mixing growing media. Choose a transplanting trowel with a short handle and a “narrow blade”, better suited to carry out all small jobs in containers or window boxes. It stores easily!

→ Discover our collection of transplanting trowels

→ Discover our wide range of planting tools

For watering

Even on a small balcony, watering is essential for your potted plants: ensure substrate is always sufficiently moist because it dries out faster. It is also key to success for beautiful flowers and generous harvests! Choose a pretty and practical watering can with small capacity but at least 5 litres, which will be lighter and less bulky yet just as indispensable for watering your pots and planters.Take inspiration from our collection of watering cans reminiscent of old zinc ones, particularly attractive and decorative when placed directly on the ground!

To label

To remind you what was sown or planted where, there is a memory aid: label plantings with garden labels! Square, round, rectangular, heart-shaped or diamond-shaped, in slate, wood, metal or plastic, choice is wide. Two types of labels are available; choose which suits you:

1. To hang from a plant using a tie (string, raffia, …)

2. To insert directly into soil at base of plant

Another advantage: they let you accessorise and stylishly decorate your urban jungle!

Labels: different materials available

→ Discover our full range of garden labels of all shapes, all colours and in different materials.

For staking, tying and supporting

Container-grown plants require much more maintenance and attention. As in the garden, it is sometimes necessary to tie plants securely to a stake to help them establish firm roots and withstand wind, even on a balcony!

Choice of stake depends on type of plant grown. For example, a small potted clematis or a tomato young plant with a compact habit will be happy with small bamboo or PVC stakes, while large begonias, some dipladenias or climbing strawberries will need a ladder-style stake. A climbing rose with more vigorous growth will require a trellis or espalier training. A small tree will need a sturdy stake to accompany its growth.

We offer different types of stakes for various uses.

From planting certain fruiting vegetables or climbing plants, long stems must be guided and tied to a support, or a branch laden with fruit may need relieving: consider tying them with natural ties such as string and raffia. Flexible plastic ties are better suited to small bushes grown in pots.

→Find all our tie solutions for your plants here: string, raffia, dispenser reels…

→Find on our site all equipment needed for training.

For pruning

Pruning shear

Essential tool every gardener should own, whether maintaining a small balcony or a large garden! Pruning shear is indispensable cutting tool for trimming flowers, twigs, shoots or stems on roses and potted bush. Necessary for pruning branches that overhang or obstruct passage. Opt for pruning shear with bypass blades, better suited to cutting green wood and soft, flexible shoots. They come in all sizes, so choose your pruning shear carefully, especially if you are right- or left-handed. Choose traditional model with compact size, easy to handle and comfortable.

→ Discover our range of pruning shears

→ Read our advice sheet: Choosing the right pruning shear

To weed and clean soil

Weeding knife

Weeding knife is an essential tool if you have a small patch of nature on a balcony. It has a long blade with a sharp, sometimes forked tip that easily penetrates soil with a flick of the wrist to pull out weeds. Choose a model with a short handle, suited to localised use on small surfaces such as flower boxes or raised vegetable beds.

→ discover our range of tools for weeding

Flower rake

With its short handle and narrow head, a flower rake is perfect for caring for container plantings. This type of small hand rake makes it easy to clean flower pots or to comb roots just before repotting or when upsetting your plants in pot or in bucket, ready to be transplanted. A small model is ideal for maintaining small spaces, especially for cleaning soil (dead leaves, twigs…) from densely planted flower boxes or planters.

→ discover all our rakes in our online shop