Hi Sharon, I'm struggling with the same sorts of questions you are. The winter freeze-thaw cycle is the biggest problem for balconies. I'm west facing and fairly protected balcony but my mugo pine didn't make it through this winter. Many have tried to discourage my hunt for hardy shrubs/small trees and suggested I just stick to annuals. However, others more knowledgable than me have agreed that dogwood might survive winter. I also experimented with a boxwood this past winter and he appears to be alive & well. This year I'm going to try an Alberta Spruce, and probably a hardy juniper. They say that when selecting shrubs for balconies, choose ones that are rated for at least 2 zones colder than the one you're in. And basically the containers have to be as big as you can possibly make them. As for small trees, Lilacs are very hardy and the fragrance is a plus. Again, you'd have to have a pretty large container for it. That generates issues of weight and presumably having to move it one day without needing to hire a crane operator! I'm not sure whether you're in southern Ontario but Vineland Nurseries, down towards Niagara, specialize in dwarf shrubs and trees, you might want to check them out. I believe they have a website and could ship plants to you. 'Hope that helps. Let me know how it goes, Christina

Welcome! Ahh.... Time to fill up someone else's balcony... heh heh heh How big is your balcony? With respect to having a couple of those named plants per container, how big a container are you using? I am trying spaghetti squash this year and have 4 in a 14-gallon Rubbermaid tote. I have some 6ft plastic bamboo stakes that I'm going to try to cobble together to make a teepee for them and will probably attempt to put some netting around that for them to climb on. Here they were this morning: It has been abnormally cool up here and I had them out in May but had them covered with a plastic milk jug, which was ridiculous. Never had to do that here ever since I moved here 11 years ago. :\ We're finally getting some nice heat coming up this week so hopefully they will take off. I've usually seen them sell squash and cukes with a couple seeds per market pack cell and people will often plant the whole thing and snip off the weakest or do like me and try to grow them all... LOL Mine were actually from seed I started 1 per cell. It might be trickier to leave them if they are bush types as they might crowd each other if the container is small. I have grown cukes in a 2ft long trough container with about 4 - 6 plants per that size as they vine out of the container and attach to whatever was nearby. Most of your plants are sun lovers (although the mint is more a part sun plant and may want more water than the rest). You location will probably get hot so consider ways to maintain moisture for the plants or they may fry. I expect the impatiens will definitely fry if not moved to a shadey spot out there unless they are New Guineas which can take more sun. Anyway, welcome to the balcony forum! I just got my first hummer of the season 18 stories up in the sky about 1 1/2 hours ago (and had the first ever that I had actually seen up here, last August). I have a bunch of hummer plants out there this year now.... heh heh

My guess is, that what goes around the southern France, Italy or Greece, will also go in that space. Hot summers and cold, but still rather mild winters. Stuff like Bourgonvilla might die down in the winter, but would perk right back up, in the spring! Stuff that goes outside, but has a short blooming period out there, might get a longer period inside (how does the smell of moonflowers from early July to mid November sound to you?). Eucalyptus might die down the first couple of winters, but will in time get very strong and tall. I think a bay-leaf would do well year round. Peaches and grapevines would do great as well, no doubt about that. Figs too. Passiflora actinia and caerulea plus some of the hybrids can withstand down to -8c/ 18f. I÷m envious!

OK, I'm back. As was stated above, April 15 is around the average last frost date for this area. But, you still don't want to plant your tomatoes out even then, unless the weather predictions at that time call for considerably warmer weather for at least a few weeks. The reason for this, is that 1. just because April 15 is the average last frost date, that doesn't mean that there can't be a late frost, and 2. tomatoes can be stunted when exposed to temperatures below somewhere around 40 degrees F (depending on humidity and other factors). Check the 10 day forecast on weather.com, etc around the 15th and make a decision at that time. The forecast for the next few weeks is still in flux. Just a week ago, the predictions for minimum temperatures for next week were well above where they are now. The weather forecaster folks frequently guess wrong. Sometimes it seems that a flip of a coin would be about as accurate as some of their predictions.