Gardening Space: Balcony

My gardening journey started in my bedroom balcony about two months ago so this area is pretty special. Let's start here.

The balcony is a cozy 4 square meter space that gets about an hour of direct morning sun on its left side. It is a shaded area for the most part, and is located at the front part of our house, above our main door. From it, I can see our neighbor's houses and the cul-de-sac below.

Please enter...

I used to have a couple of shrimp flower plants (Justicia brandegeeana) here a few years ago but due to neglect, that is, no one bothered to water them for several weeks, they withered and went to plant heaven. The balcony has been a victim of busy lives trying to balance work, babies, housework, and other time-consuming activities then. However, with my youngest son growing up and becoming more independent, I have been able to catch my breath and enjoy a few minutes of 'me' time the past few months.

As a form of exercise and relaxing ritual, I placed some potted plants in the balcony to water every morning to start my day. I had no grand intentions, and I even expected most of the plants to slowly die on me. Well, a month passed, and not only did I not cause any death, the anthurium even started to bloom, while the other plants thrived, too.

My interest and enthusiasm grew, and I slowly added more plants to the mix. I researched on tropical shade-loving plants that would love the bright but shady spot and came up with these lovely plants.

one of the anthuriums, beautiful caladiums (gabi-gabi in Cebuano), a prayer plant (Maranta leuconeura var. kerchoviana), and a snake plant Sansevieria trifasciata a money tree or Madagascar dragon tree (Dracaena Marginata colorama cultivar) with pink long and spiky leaves, sabungai (Gynura Procumbens, which is always mistaken as ashitaba in the Philippines) in the red pot, another kind of anthurium with medium-sized heart-shaped leaves, a peace lily (Spathiphyllum), and a variagated kalipay plant once there was only one flower, now this anthurium proudly displays two pinkish bracts 2 more pretty caladiums, and a radicalis palm (Chamaedorea radicalis) a peace lily, sabungai, tropical shrimp flower showing off its bright yellow bloom, the lush variagated spider plant Chlorophytum bichetii in the foreground, and another kalipay plant in the background In the coming days, I plan to add more plants here for a more lush and cozy atmosphere worthy of any morning ritual.