I live in NYC on the upper west side and I am so grateful to have a tiny but mighty 7×7 terrace in the middle of Manhattan. Every year I design my colorful balcony garden and grow my flowers from seeds under grow lamps starting in late February or early March. I start planning my garden in January as I find January to be the most depressing month! Giving myself a colorful creative outlet really helps to remind me of warmer, brighter days ahead.
Over the weekend, I finished designing so today I’m sharing my 2026 colorful balcony garden design–including sources! Feel free to snag any of the same seeds and we can be garden twins:-)
First! Before you buy any seeds, make sure your growing zone aka ‘plant hardiness zone’ is suitable for the seeds below. NYC is zone 7b for example.
My 2026 Colorful Balcony Garden Design Plans
The Inspiration
I wanted my colorful balcony garden to feel airy, bright, soft but vibrant, with a good dose of whimsy. I wanted it to be pollinator and hummingbird friendly with blooms everywhere. I was drawn to the 2 inspirational images below, which brought me to a color palette of pink, peach, yellow, and purple.
What do you think of my colorful balcony garden design? I think the design is pretty close to the inspirational images so I can’t wait to get started. These seeds will primarily be in rail planters with some nasturtium in pots. I like to reserve my pots for herbs like basil, rosemary, and catmint because my cats have access to the outdoor space (on harnesses, supervised) and they love attacking bees so everything that could attract a pollinator stays above their reach–except the catmint because that is for them!
If you follow me on instagram, you know I remind you often to grow nasturtium. It’s my favorite flower, is easy to grow, and is STUNNING. So I’m giving you a reminder here too:-) Also, the flowers are edible! This year I’m growing 2 types–one of them gets 6′ tall!!!
I start my seeds using the soil blocking method–a method I learned about in my gardening group! It’s excellent because it let’s the roots breathe. I wrote all about it here. And if you want to see previous year’s garden, you can check out 2025 and 2024.
Happy seed shopping!
