I lived for a few years on a second floor apartment with a little balcony. It had a roof over it and faced northeast. I live in Zone 6, which is further south than you've got (near St Louis). But because I *had* to garden, I turned that little bit of a balcony into a garden of Eden. Even pizza delivery guys would comment (in a good way). The only complaint I got was from someone downstairs who was sure I was bringing spiders. boo hoo. Anyway, based on a few years of container gardening, my advice is: experiment! Accept that you'll have some failures, but you'll also have great successes and those will be fabulous. Make a list of what you want to try and play around on paper (or Photoshop) with your balcony area. My problem was that my eyes and heart were always bigger than my balcony. But I successfully grew tomatoes, eggplants, lettuce and all kinds of flowers. And HERBS out the yahoo...that's really when I started herb gardening because herbs do so well in containers (don't fertilize, herbs don't like fertilizer). Other things do need fertilizer of some kind. I bought one of those terra cotta strawberry pots and used it to grow herbs...it worked quite well. Now that I've got ground again, I use it for portulaca. My other advice would be to purchase plants at your local nurseries the first year. They won't carry plants that won't grow in your area. If you start shopping seed catalogs, you'll likely end up with things that won't do well. I love the jasmine idea, and my aunt grows a big beautiful jasmine in a pot. Takes it out on the deck during spring/summer, then brings it back in. They have seven cats. On the cats, I don't have any advice. I have cats myself and when I was at the apartment, they mostly left things alone when I brought them in. (Exception: one cat could eat an entire Oxalis plant in an hour if I didn't keep it out of his reach..he loved them) Now I have a little cat who goes totally insane if I bring plants in. She tries to climb them, digs and pees in them and generally just shreds them. So until she gets older, I have to put plants in the basement. I've tried everything and nothing works except keeping them out of her way. I may try this next fall: http://www.catscat.com.au/ One plant I've had great success with is hibiscus if you can find them there. The kind you have to bring inside over winter. They bloom beautifully and are spectacular on a balcony. For winter, I cut them way back so there's no growth. Most cats would have no interest in that because it's just some dead looking branches. (My little cat is an exception) I would stick it in a closet all winter, ignore it, then take it back out in spring. I agree that you should check out the container gardening forum. But experiment and have fun! Balcony gardening can be great fun, and wonderful joy when things really take off. Oh, and get a good watering can. Know that some of your things will require watering on a daily basis. (Some won't...read the info that comes with the plants)

There should be no problem growing your corn in proximity to the tomatoes. It's surely not how I would choose to use that valuble real estate, though. We've been bringing home the most delicious sweet corn from the farmers ' market for a couple of weeks. But that's me! I'd use that precious space for a couple different kinds of basil and some other herbs. So what kind of corn are you interested in growing and how many plants will your container accomodate? I know you'll have fun.

I'm also curious if anyone has bought plants offline with success, and which sites they used. I think you meant online?? There are many sites that are good. Ebay is not so good.

I did this and it was beneficial, but sunlight was a little more limited than yours. It's easy enough to hook up an outdoor MH or HPS floodlight to shine down on your plants, but remember that a 400 watt HID light (the strongest I've seen for outdoor use) will only illuminate about a 5 foot square area, and must be mounted a few feet above your plants. I had some hassles with neighbors, too; you can buy hoods to cut the light off at the edge, and of course the lights will only be on during the daytime, but some people may find a reason to complain whatever you do. I'd try it for a season with what you have before spending money on the lights and electricity. Here's an example of what you can do with outdoor lights in shade. Click on the picture for more details.