How much food can be grown on a balcony?

It’s mid-November and I’m still feeding people off my balconies. Last week I had ten members of the Transition Belsize Energy and Transport group round for dinner and served them salad with fresh peas in it. Yesterday I made pestos from rocket and nasturtiums. At the weekend we had scrambled eggs (not from next door’s hens sadly!) cooked with nettles and fennel. Amazingly there are still a few alpine strawberries and cherry tomatoes on the back balcony.

Of course I can’t produce all the food that our two person household needs. I reckon I’m producing about 5-10%. But 5-10% is already a lot and I get a lot of pleasure out of it. It’s down time for me. In the last year my balconies have produced potatoes, tomatoes, strawberries, raspberries, rocket, broccoli, lettuce, peas, endive (chicory), beetroot, radishes, carrots, nasturtiums, nettles, coriander, rosemary, tarragon, basil, mint, sage, shallot onions, chives and fennel.

"You must have huge balconies" is what most people say when I tell them that. But I don’t. I reckon I have about 8m² including the window sills and the balcony parapets. I’ve used permaculture stacking principles and every scrap of space. It’s amazing what you can do if you design it carefully.

Sadly the blueberries, gooseberries and blackcurrants didn’t fruit this year, and I didn't manage to master the art of growing rhubarb in a pot on a first floor balcony in North London, but hopefully those will all be wins in 2010!