Hi organic_skygardener and welcome!

You have alot of choices of what you can grow and I would start with things that you know you will eventually use so you get that sense of satisfaction of having your own homegrown herbs/veggies in your cooking and/or food preparation. I know last year it was fun making pesto from the Genovese basil that I grew and I still have some left in the freezer. I also have a bag of tomatoes left in the freezer to use to make sauce with.

Most of these types of plants will like the amount of sun that you get. However be aware that south-facing balconies can get very hot in summer and the plants will definitely need watering quite often. Some years ago, one of my sisters lived in an apartment with a south-facing balcony and she found that she had to move some of her plants (eg., tomatoes) back away from the rail so they could get some bit of partial shade during the day, otherwise the leaves and fruit were getting sun scald. Using self-watering pots may help in the case of watering (along with mulch) and using a decorative lattice or some shade cloth might also help to provide some filtered sun without totally blocking it.

If you like herbs, you might consider trough containers or window boxes to place a couple types in the same container in sections. Some herbs, like the mints, tend to prefer some shade and may need to be in the shadier spots or planted under larger plants, but most will like the sun. As for veggies, you can pretty much grow whatever you have room for (including vining plants like cukes or melons) and stake as needed.

A key thing to growing is not cheaping out on your soil. Go for a commercial container mix or you can mix up your own - all to make sure that you get good drainage (but balanced with some water retention due to the amount of sun that you get). Also except for habaneros that got some aphids on them (which then attracted ladybugs to take care of them), I haven't had much problem with insects on my herbs or veggies. This doesn't mean that they will always be bug free but usually, a strong spray of plain water or a soap solution can take care of the common buggies and even netting the plants can keep destructive beetles out if you get them. I am also on the 18th floor and believe it or not, the buggies do come up (and I need the carpenter bees to pollinate my blueberries, so I don't mind them)! LOL

If you have any specific ideas of plants that you like, do let us know as many of us have grown just about everything! LOL

Thanks for the encouragement, Jenny, and for the wealth of plant suggestions.

Buried in my request for help is the fact that my balcony is now enclosed with windows. Will your suggestions work on my enclosed balcony?

Thanks for your help.

The lattice idea is a good one, I think I'll try it for mine for some shade and privacy. :-) It'll be cool with some form of fast growing vine or something like that.

organic_skygardener - the suggestions should work. What might help is to open the windows to allow that ventilation as much as possible (plus it'll help normalize the temperature between the outside and inside during summer). The breezes will help to strengthen the stems of your plants and will help to keep some pest problems down too (most notably, spider mites).

claudosu - I have some thin lattice trellises and do grow vines on them. Works pretty good!