Plan a Container Garden for a Small Patio or Balcony

A balcony or a patch of patio is enough to grow real food if you set it up right. Give the space, a rough budget and your priorities, and this plans the lot: container sizes and materials per crop, the best compost mix, drainage, and how to fit it into a small footprint. For the gardener who has no ground and a couple of square metres.

I have a {space_description} (e.g. south-facing balcony, 2m x 1.5m) and want to create a productive container garden. I can spend roughly {budget} on containers and compost. My priorities are {priorities} (e.g. salad crops year-round, herbs for cooking, colourful edible flowers). Design a container garden plan that covers: which container sizes and materials to use for each crop, the best compost mix and drainage setup, how to arrange containers for maximum yield and aesthetics, a watering and feeding schedule suited to container growing, and which crops give the best return in a confined space. Include at least one vertical growing idea to maximise the footprint.