Today we’re visiting Anna McLeod’s garden—which is perched on a ninth-floor balcony! Never say you don’t have the space to garden.

My husband and I gave up our house and moved into a condo so we could travel, but I could never give up my love of plants and gardening! So now I garden in the urban jungle in pots. So far I have four different Japanese maples (Acer palmatum, Zones 5–9), a plum tree (Prunus sp.), a bay tree (Laurus nobilis, Zones 8–10), and many pots. We live in Vancouver, British Columbia, in Zone 7/8. Our space faces the southwest, so it gets extremely hot on the ninth floor and can be very windy. My husband installed a drip-line water system on a timer, which makes life much easier. And since I’m in a wheelchair, it’s tough to carry watering cans around. We will be adding more pots and more perennials, but this is our little garden oasis. Hope you enjoy the photos!

A view of the patio, with pots overflowing with plants. Small trees like Japanese maples are great choices for container gardening, because they thrive in containers but don’t outgrow the space.

A comfortable bench for sitting and enjoying the garden and the view.

Hanging baskets are a great way to add more plants to a small garden by making use of the vertical space.

Just because you are gardening on a patio or balcony doesn’t mean you can’t grow food! Look for dwarf fruit trees (this is a plum) that won’t outgrow your space.

A new Japanese maple settling in, ready to grow and fill in this garden.

Succulents are great options for containers and for sunny, windy spots because they are tolerant of drying out. If you put in an automatic watering system, like Anna has, watering will be much less of a chore, but be sure to check the soil periodically to make sure it isn’t staying too wet or too dry. Each plant needs different amounts, with succulents like these using a little, and larger plants needing a lot more.

Have a garden you’d like to share?

Have photos to share? We’d love to see your garden, a particular collection of plants you love, or a wonderful garden you had the chance to visit!

To submit, send 5-10 photos to [email protected] along with some information about the plants in the pictures and where you took the photos. We’d love to hear where you are located, how long you’ve been gardening, successes you are proud of, failures you learned from, hopes for the future, favorite plants, or funny stories from your garden.

If you want to send photos in separate emails to the GPOD email box that is just fine.

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