A balcony garden in Phoenix, AZ?

Question

I'm curious about when to plant and what I can plant on my second floor balcony. The balcony faces west, so we get the afternoon sun in Phoenix. I have young kids so I want to avoid cactus or anything that could be poisonous.

Answer 1

The following plants are sun-lovers that thrive in a dry, well-drained soil and need only occasional deep soakings once established.
1. Helichrysum italicum , flowers late summer but mainly used for foilage.
2. Chaenomeles speciosa, white flowers in winter and early springg.
3. Grevillea 'sandra'gordon', yellow flowers most of the year.
4. Osteospermum ecklonis, white flowers late winters and spring.
5. Euryops pectinatus, yellow flowers spring and autumn.
6. Eschscholzia californica (cream form) cream flowers mid spring to summer.
7.Acacia spectabilis , yellow flowers late winter and early spring.
8. Acacia fimbriata(dwarf form) cream flowers in early spring.

Answer 2

Its hard to get anything to grow on the west side facing the sun, I would put up a trellace or a sun screen if possible then contact your local nursery and purchase local, native plants that are low maint, low water, high sun. A lot of our nurserys carry things that are brought in from California, which doesnt have the heat that we do In AZ so things dont make it through the stong summer heat. Make sure what ever you get doesnt have thorns, a lot of heat tolerant plants have them.