Everyone told me you can't do habitat on a balcony. Sixty square feet, third floor, full afternoon sun that cooks everything. Fair. It's not easy.

But a dripper, a few native container plants, and some patience got me twenty-three species in the first year. Painted ladies, a black-chinned hummingbird that comes back every morning, more bees than I can name.

The point isn't that my balcony is impressive. The point is that if I can pull this off up here, the excuse that you 'don't have space' is officially dead.