Under the Choko Tree By Nevin Sweeney

The Sustainable Balcony - Part 1: the Assessment

Introduction

With almost 90% of our population living in urban areas, Australia is one of the more urbanised countries in the world and what’s more, the family living in a house on a quarter acre block is becoming the exception rather than the rule for suburbia. In recent years there has been a strong trend towards high and medium density housing and the number of apartments being built is on the increase in our cities. Without recourse the great Aussie backyard, what can you do to live more sustainably if all you have is a balcony? Quite a bit; thanks for asking!

Why grow food on your balcony?

Growing your own food is a great way to increase the sustainability of your lifestyle, and is worth doing on its own, for a whole stack of reasons -

  • Aesthetics – it looks good! If you can look out a window or set of glass doors onto your balcony and see beautiful, productive, tasty vegetables rather than just another building as is often the case, why not?
  • Taste – Nothing tastes like really fresh veggies. Anything you grow on your balcony which you can go out and pick, cook and eat has got to be worthwhile from the flavour alone.
  • Reduced food miles (food feet!) – The environmental cost of bringing us our food is high and every bit you grow will reduce you and your families’ environmental impact.
  • Cools things down – The effect of the hot sun on bare brick and concrete means that the cities tend to be hotter than the surrounding land, which is referred to as the heat island effect. By growing your own on your balcony you are giving the sunshine a better job than just heating up the surrounding air, it will be producing food.
  • Reduce noise – depending on how you structure things, vegetation between you and the outside world can provide a barrier to outside noise. Bare flat surfaces tend to reflect noise without reducing its volume much whereas vegetation absorbs and reduces the noise level.
  • Reduce pressure on drains – Stormwater drains in the city can easily be overwhelmed by a sudden rain because all of the rain is runoff. Vegetation, even if it is pots, will slow the journey of the rainwater so that the drains find it easier to cope and flooding is reduced


Assessing the Balcony

Before rushing straight out and starting, or even making any big decisions on what goes where, spending a bit of time to assess what you have and what your options are is a good thing. To help you out I have developed a Balcony Assessment Form to walk you through the process and prompt the things you need to look at. If you are doing the assessment for someone else, it will also make the process much easier and result in a better outcome.

Here are some notes on how to use the form to assess your balcony -

Context

These are the bits and pieces that makes sure you remember which property it was that you assessed. This is no problem if it is your own property but if you are assessing a few balconies it can get confusing very quickly

Date: this draws the line in the sand so you know when you did your assessment, you may wish to look back on it or amend it in the future so having an idea of when it was done can be handy.

Address: Not so important if you only intend to ever do one assessment but if you do more than one, all of a sudden the address can become critical.

Floor No: In other words, is the balcony on the ground floor or the 10th floor? See “Address” above. If you are doing multiple assessments however it is handy to know how far off the ground the balcony is for wind effects as well as helping you find it again if you need to!

Construction details

Dimensions and area of balcony: one of the critical limiting dimensions of the design will be the area which you have to work with. The overall shape may be important to, if it is long and narrow may require a different approach than if it were square so having the dimensions as well as the overall area will be useful.

Wall and railing type and height: the railing or wall type which prevents falls from the open end of the balcony will also affect the impact of the sun, wind and rain on features on the balcony. Whether it is glass, brick or steel, whether it is solid or has areas where sun and rain can get in may be important to the finished design and so is important to record.

Materials of construction and condition: if the balcony made of steel, wood, concrete, brick or a combination it may affect what goes where in the finished design. The overall condition may have an impact on the weight which the balcony can support as well. Is there rot in the wood, cracks in the brickwork or rust on the steel? A review at this stage will point out any structural issues which will need to be resolved before the design is implemented. If there is any doubt at all, secure the services of a structural engineer.

Drainage and Fall: Does the balcony have any form of drain? How big is it? Where does it lead? Do all points on the balcony fall towards the drain or are there areas where a build-up of water may occur? This may be a critical factor on how irrigation water will be treated in the finished design and where drainage water should be directed.

Climate

Direction faced: the direction the balcony faces is probably the most critical non-alterable characteristic of the balcony. Here in the southern hemisphere a south facing balcony may mean no direct sunlight at all which will severely limit options for growing anything. Almost anything other than a due south aspect will allow some form of food production.

Don't guess! Use a compass

Water Access: if there is a tap right there on the balcony you have it made! But even if you do, what other opportunities to gather water are there? Is there a downpipe from the roof which you can tap into or maybe an overhead structure which can be used to harvest rainwater. If there is no direct access to water of any description on the balcony itself, where is the nearest tap? You may have to fill watering cans and lug them from inside, which can be a pain. If there is a suitable tap inside would it be better to run a hose and fill a water drum on the balcony and then run water out as required.

Shade – shade may come from local trees, overhanging projections or other buildings in the vicinity such that even with a good aspect the hours of sunlight may be reduced. The amount of shade will also vary with the seasons and this should be taken into account.

Prevailing Wind: some history of wind in the area will be important to the design, especially for balconies on the higher levels of a building. Surrounding buildings may also modify the direction a wind comes from. High winds will be hard on the more delicate plants causing both physical damage as well as drying plants out quickly and may necessitate designing in a wind break of some description.

Microclimate issues: by looking at the balcony and its environment as a whole it may be possible to identify particular microclimates such as warm and sunny or cool shady spots, a damp are which seems to catch the rain or an exposed area more subject to the wind than other parts. Identifying these issues at the start can allow the design to make the most of any existing microclimates.

Nearby Roads: While the effect of roads on the balcony will be reduced the higher the balcony is up on the building, lower down there can be a number of effects. Traffic noise can reduce the amenity of the balcony my keeping up an annoying hum, air pollution from passing traffic can affect both the garden and the gardener and the heat island effect can mean warmer winters but also hotter summers.

Other stuff

Existing Materials, plants and structures: The stuff which is already there will have an effect on what new stuff you can introduce. If some of the existing stuff can be removed that is worth recording because it will give you more space but before finalising your plan it is important to know what can be moved and what can’t.

Balconies can get a bit cluttered

Owner’s Vision: if you are doing this for yourself, this is the part where you can record what you want to get out of your balcony edible garden. Once you can articulate what you want it is possible to work backwards from that and develop a plan to deliver as much as you can of your vision. In a similar way, if you are doing this for someone else it is important to understand what they hope to get out of the finished product so that can be delivered as much as possible too.

Conducting the Assessment

OK so you now have a printout of the blank assessment form on your clip board, and are ready to go!......maybe. At this point it is a good idea to collect the following things to help you record your data during the assessment –

A compass – an orienteering compass is good but in a pinch anything that shows you where north is, even if it is an app on your iPhone. Don’t guess which way you think the balcony faces, check it with a compass and make sure to note it down on the form. This will save lots of hassles later.

A tape measure – You will need to take the measurements of everything! The length and breadth of the balcony itself but also the dimensions of everything on it, where things are in relation to each other and especially the bits that won’t move. Whatever you can find. If you measure everything on your first trip, even the stuff you think you will never need, it will reduce the need for a return visit and save you time in the long run.

Digital Camera – As above, photograph everything! That will help you when you are working out where everything is and what space you have to work with. They will act as a supplement to your measurements and assist you to work out where everything is now, and where the new stuff will fit.

A picture is worth a thouusand words

Spirit Level – It may be obvious where the “fall” of the balcony is, towards the edge or towards the drain, but a spirit level can be handy to identify which way the balcony slopes and therefore which way the water will run.

Stationery – A selection of pens, pencils, plain, lined and graph paper is a great support for taking notes and sketches and drawing out ideas when talking with the owner about their vision for the balcony.

Small electronic voice recorder – to record conversations with the owner assuming that is not you, and if they are comfortable with your doing so.

To conduct the assessment, first do a quick look over the balcony to get the lay of the land, as it were, or at least the lay of the balcony. Then set to and take photos from as many angles as you can manage, with separate photos of any features which are to remain after the plan is put in place. Once things have been photographed within an inch of their life, take as many measurements as you can and draw up a mudmap of the balcony and what is on it.

Once all that is done, make notes on construction details and talk to the owner about any climate data they can give you. The final thing is to go through with the owner what their vision for the space is – what is to go, what is to stay, what sort of fruit, vegetables and herbs they wish to produce, what they want to see in the space. Some ideas from you around possibilities – pond, vertical growing, self-watering containers, worm farm, fruit trees – will help to stimulate their thoughts around what they are after. As always, take copious notes or, if they are comfortable with it, record the conversation.

With all the data recorded you can starting putting together the plan.

The Sustainable Balcony Part 2: Planning, Options and Techniques

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