For Tilly Bissett and Nick Billings, like many apartment dwellers, their balcony felt like an afterthought: a place for a few pots, a chair or two and not much else.
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balcony → feel → pots
But with some clever planning they transformed the narrow 11-square-metre space in Richmond, Melbourne, into a thriving outdoor room packed with greenery, edible plants and distinct zones for everyday living.
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they → transform → living
A beautiful but underused space
The couple's north-facing balcony had plenty of potential, but they weren't sure how to make the most of it.
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they → face → it
A keen cook and entertainer, Tilly wanted a space where she could grow some produce to use in the kitchen.
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she → want → kitchen
Despite trying a few different plants, she had found the balcony a challenging space to garden.
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balcony → try → plants
What followed was a rethink of how the space functioned and what could be grown there.
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what → follow → ?
Think bigger with plants
One of the most significant changes was replacing a collection of small hanging herb pots with a few larger feature plants.
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One → think → plants
These created immediate focal points that helped define the balcony and gave a sense of greenery.
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that → create → greenery
A bottle tree (Brachychiton rupestris) in a sunny position became the main feature tree.
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tree → become → position
Not usually grown in pots, bottle trees grow slowly, meaning they are a low-maintenance option for time-poor gardeners.
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they → grow → gardeners
Another large pot with a lemon myrtle (Backhousia citriodora) provided an attractive edible tree in a more sheltered spot.
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pot → provide → spot
To complete the look, a third large pot was planted with a bay laurel (Laurus nobilis) in the hot, sunny spot next to the barbecue.
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pot → complete → barbecue
Weight is an important consideration when gardening on a balcony.
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Weight → garden → balcony
Tilly chose lightweight pots and mixed perlite through a premium potting mix to reduce the overall load on the structure, while still giving plants the room they need to thrive.
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they → choose → room
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Growing food in a small space
A dedicated food-growing area was included at one end of the balcony.
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area → sign → balcony
Rather than installing permanent structures, modular wicking beds were built from second-hand containers sourced through Facebook Marketplace.
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beds → instal → Marketplace
The stacked containers raise the growing beds off the ground and allow veggies to receive sunlight for much of the day, while putting them at a height that makes harvesting easy.
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harvesting → stack → height
The wicking design also means the beds only need watering once a week in winter and a couple of times a week in summer.
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beds → wicke → summer
Filled with herbs, leafy greens and other edible crops, the new kitchen garden gives Tilly a ready supply of ingredients just steps from the kitchen.
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garden → fill → kitchen
Layering greenery from floor to ceiling
Another key to the transformation was making use of vertical space.
Layering greenery at different heights created a much richer and more immersive feeling than relying on pots at ground level alone.
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Layering → layer → level
The balcony now features plants across multiple levels, including wall planters filled with epiphytes, a striking elkhorn fern (Platycerium bifurcatum) mounted on a backing board attached to the wall and climbing edibles growing up a wire trellis.
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balcony → feature → trellis
Small, medium and large pots throughout the space added further layers of foliage.
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pots → add → foliage
Tilly and Nick repotted their monsteras and added philodendrons, rubber tree (Ficus elastica) and bird's nest fern (Asplenium cv.) to get a mix of colours and textures.
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Tilly → repot → colours
The result is a balcony that feels lush but not overcrowded.
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that → feel → ?
"I wouldn't have thought that so many plants could fit on the balcony, to be honest," Tilly says, "[but] it feels like there's still a lot of space here."
Using zoning in small spaces
One useful lesson from the project is that zoning isn't just for large backyards.
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zoning → think → backyards
Despite the balcony's small size, it now contains three distinct areas: a barbecue and dining zone, a productive food garden and a cosy reading nook.
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it → contain → areas
The different spaces aren't heavily separated, but each serves a clear purpose.
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each → separate → purpose
This gives the balcony the feeling of an outdoor room rather than a collection of unrelated pots and furniture.
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This → give → pots
A practical storage solution helped support the new layout.
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solution → help → layout
The face of a second-hand barbecue trolley was clad with upcycled floorboards, creating a neat place to store potting mix and gardening supplies — like a tiny garden shed — which blends seamlessly into the design.
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which → clothe → design
By combining some large feature plants, edible garden beds, vertical planting and clearly defined zones, Tilly and Nick's balcony is now somewhere they genuinely want to spend time.
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they → combine → time
What was once an underused outdoor area is now a place to cook, garden, read, relax and entertain.
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was → cook → ?
The Aporia