I counted a whole summer of balcony tomatoes and the number was small enough to be funny. Here is the honest accounting of what a few pots produce, and the reasons I keep doing it that have nothing to do with the amount of food.
I read my own lease properly before buying a single pot, which is not how most people start. Here is what I found about drilling, drips, weight, and the fact that everything I plant has to be able to move house with me.
I came home from two nights away to a collapsed basil plant and finally accepted the thing nobody tells you about container growing: the watering is not a chore around the edges of the hobby, it is most of the hobby.
I spent a Saturday watching where the light actually fell on my railing instead of guessing. What I found reorganized the whole balcony, and explained why my first year of leggy, sulking plants went the way it did.
A short list of what has genuinely produced food on my balcony and a longer list of what I have given up on. Herbs earn their space, salad leaves nearly do, and root vegetables have quietly been retired.
A January accounting of my kitchen sill: three new parsley leaves in six weeks, scallion stubs in a jar, and a basil plant that quietly gave up. What kept going indoors, what stalled, and whether the sill space earned its keep.