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)

I grow numerous orchids, both epiphytic and terrestrial, as well as a large collection of sarracenias and a few nepenthes. The most successful orchid/cp combinations in my garden are bog gardens, and they are spectacular right now. I have Platanthera (aka. Habenaria) ciliaris in full bloom planted in combination with Sarracenias, VFT's, and Calopogon orchids. I'm still experimenting with Epipactus species, but they are not terribly vigorous here (lots of west coast plants tend to languish in our summer humidity.) Another successful bog companion, as noted in one of the posts above, is Spiranthes cernua. I'm also experimenting with Pogonia ophoglossoides (sp?), but it's taking a while to get established; it's pretty far south of its normal range here, so the heat may be a factor. I have tried cypripediums in bog environments before, but can't recommend that. I find that they need much better drainage to prevent fungal attack than do the CP's, and they're too expensive to risk. Bletillas are a possibility while in growth, but would need to be lifted and stored in a drier, cooler place during the winter - I've seen them sold as bog plants at a couple of local nurseries lately, but wouldn't count on their being perennial without decent winter drainage. As far as the epiphytic species go, I don't see why a combo of Nepenthes and Phals, for instance, wouldn't work, but I agree that it would just be easier to grow them separately. Weight becomes a consideration when you're dealing with plants which hang (I grow all of mine on mounts or suspended in pots or baskets), and you can always group them together for display purposes. Another issue is that epiphytic plants (which includes most of the orchids which are commonly available) need the excellent drainage afforded them by a container which will dry out to the core before being watered again; when you start combining plants in containers, you increase the volume of potting medium and likewise the time it takes for moisture in the center to evaporate. I like the idea of the bromeliad/nepenthes/orchid "tree"; I snagged the remains of a beautiful crepe myrtle from one of my neighbor's trash heap a couple of years ago with the notion of creating something like that, but so far it's just providing a climbing wall for squirrels behind my shed. The best laid plans...

That is a beautiful nasturtium. I plant them every year. :-) The seeds are really easy to collect.

Hi Its an AWESOME book, well worth the mear $20.00 Ok, with internet, I have found that you need internet access to register this software on your PC, this code that is provided can ONLY BE USED ONCE, so you can only install it once (one license per PC) If you need to reinstall it on another PC or if you loose the software and need to register it again you need to contact cobraplant for a new code. I have tested the book with no internet access once registered and it works perfectly. I reckon The Savage Garden is a neat book and quite informative, this E-Book though has tons of information and is very easy to use and read for beginners. I feel it also answers many questions beginners still have once they are done with The Savage Garden. I think this is another great tool to have in your CP arsenal. Cheers Sheldon