Living in a small flat, we don’t have much room for growing plants. I Wanted to find something that was relatively portable (compared to an allotment!!) but would enable growing of a few edible plants.
What I ended up with was the Lechuza Balconera. A trough like container that holds a supply of water in the base meaning I don’t have to remember to water the plants in it. Not a problem for cacti, but for the lettuce and spinach I was planning to grow, a bit more important!
I’ve purchased two of these Balconeras, hopefully they’ll prove suitable for the Lettuce and Spinach I’m starting out with.
Lechuza Balconera liner
Lechuza Balconera assembly
The Balconera consists of a plastic “trough”, in which sits a plastic liner trough. As a result there is a gap between the inner liner trough which is where the water reservoir is.
Water is drawn up from the bottom through the (provided) grit/gravel like substrate, idea being to keep the compost moist lower down encouraging strong root growth.
showing liner handles
Compost is layered over the top of the drainage layer of grit. Lechuza refer to this grit as Lechuz ‘pon’. I guess that’s a German word for gravel or some such (Lechuza is a German brand).
Drainage
If using your Lechuza Balconera outside it’s recommended you remove this orange screw from the middle of the outer trough.
If you forget to remove this screw, when it rains the resevoir will become full and your plants will likely suffer from saturated substrate. While my planters are on the flat balcony this shouldn’t be a risk, but I removed the screw anyway. It’ll prevent me over filling the reservoir.
Water Gauge
You don’t need to rely on a watering schedule with the Lechuza Balconera, it comes with a useful gauge to judge the level of water in the reservoir.
The assembly of the gauge is shown to the right. Note the polystyrene ‘float’ inside what I can only describe as the cage.
The piece on the left fits inside the pipe on the right. The red part then rises and falls as the float that sits on the water responds to the water level.
Lechuza recommend waiting until the meter is on minimum/empty for several days before refilling the reservoir.
Growing Stuff 