I really should have done a “before” picture – I spent the evening readying everything, and I dragged down 200l of used soil and dead plants to the trash room in 4 (heavy!) sacks in preparation for everything. I had enough fresh soil for 6 pots, so they’ve already been filled, and the sweetpeas are soaking in a glass of water so they can be planted tomorrow. Also, my strawberry plants survived the harsh long winter and are happily growing. Now I need to find a friend with a car so I can get some more soil, but to be honest, just getting all the old stuff thrown out has helped immensely, as that was a sort of mental block to get started again.

Anyway, a picture of my strawberries and a quick look from the window post cleanup – the plastic covering on my little greenhouse had been folded up and lying on the balcony ever since last summer, so it needed a scrubbing – hence why it’s wet in the pictures!

The peppers and oregano is growing quite fast as well

The rest of the balcony looks more or less the same as last post – a few more flowers on the tomato plant and such; but nothing as exciting as the peas!

This will probably be the last post for 10 days or so, as I’m off to India all of next week, and leaving the flat, kitties and balcony to my good friend, Sean. So until then, tata!

/Lac

The fact that summer has arrived also means that I have taken the plastic off the “greenhouse”; it should be warm enough for everything to survive now. I also sowed some more lettuce and spring onion today; you can never have too much spring onion, and lettuce will be sown as it is eaten – and I have already eaten some of it, yum!

This great weather also means I really have to remember to water my plants every day; my tomato is currently looking a bit dry after I forgot to water it for 2 days thanks to exam stress – but I think (and hope) it will survive anyway

… but I know you’re not that interested in my yapping, so here’s the pictures!

In my last post, I mentioned that I had planted sweetpeas and spinach… this is how they’re faring so far:

The new basil is also growing in its pot:

And last but not least, the two pots which holds the new spring onion I sowed

I also wanted to clear out the tulips and plant spinach and sweetpeas in the boxes instead, but there’s a tulip just about to bloom, so will wait until that’s done. It’s yet another colourblind one – it looks like it will be yellow. Also, I now know that if I choose to grow tulips again, I’ll probably plant them in pots instead; they seem to not like the shallow boxes. But it was fun trying!

I also had to sow some new basil, as those seedlings died. Oh well! Good thing there’s a gazillion seeds in a seed bag!

My mum came over this weekend to visit, and we went to buy more soil (now I definitely have enough; bought another 100l, and used 50l – the last 50l are in my storage, as I might very well need them later), as she also brought over my 5 strawberry plants! Yay! I bought a young mini plum tomato plant, which I instantly planted into a bigger pot and placed next to my 6 bush pepper plants (I eat a lot of pepper, and you never know how much each plant will give) in the greenhouse.

The leek got planted in one of the tubs, and the strawberries went in the new tub. Actually, why am I explaining this, when pictures will do so much better!

And then my topic also mentioned colourblind tulips; 3 of my tulips are starting to bloom! Surprisingly enough, it’s the small ones that are starting; I knew they would be small, but not THAT small. Also, the tulip bulbs I bought were supposed to be some blue, and some black, but they’re coming up as a light yellow with some darker blotches. I’m guessing the soil might have had something to do with it, but they’re still purdy, aren’t they?

Anyway, I’m really proud of how it looks out there now! And the only things I have planned to plant now are spinach and beetroot later, and maybe some snowpeas – but I’m not sure I can fit the beetroot in anywhere. We’ll see. And I have definitely dropped the idea of a column cherry tree; but maybe next year, if I find out that carrots or leek aren’t a success.

I’m really hoping that some of this will produce edible things – to be honest, I will be happy if half of it is successful. But even then, it’s fun to try!

One balcony box has a few garlics (the ones I had in the windowsill), rosemary and oregano. Next balcony box has basil and iceberg. Next has iceberg and regular lettuce. Next box is a bit more regular lettuce and loads of spring onion, and lastly, there’s 2 big rubber buckets of carrots – yum! The carrots and spring onion have been planted directly, not presprouted, as apparently that’s the way to do it

Of course I will at some point have another 2 balcony boxes freed up, but they currently hold my tulips, which grow a lot every day currently. Especially one of the boxes seem to be doing well, which is a bit odd, as the bulbs are completely mixed up, and they were planted at the same time in the same soil etc; but such is gardening I guess

Now I’ll go for a run to enjoy the spring sunshine – they’re threatening a bit of rain over the next few days, which will mean less watering for me of course; but I really hope this gorgeous weather will just continue!

Picture is taken through my living room window as I could get most of the important bits of the balcony this way – but you’re going to have to live with window glare as well.

After being eaten, I planted some new cress, which is almost ready again. However, as the pictures here will show, things are really growing and most of it is ready to be planted out – just waiting for the weather forecast to show no risk of night frost anymore!

I might be able to plant out this weekend, but if not, I’ll do it during my easter holiday – which here gives us Thursday till Monday off But at the very least I need to go get longer balcony boxes and some planting soil this weekend, just so I’m prepared. I’ll also be buying a shelving unit to maximize balcony space; but that won’t be until my mum comes to visit right after easter. But then I really should be done buying stuff to start this project off!

Outside, the tulips are happily growing – I promise pictures will come, as soon as something more colourful shows up. The garlics are a lost cause though, I am sure now. Nothing at all is happening with them; so this Autumn I’ll make sure to plant them later to avoid this happening again!

Now, I’ll spend some of my Friday reading a bit in my new organic gardening book that I bought cheaply on a booksale

As you can see, the cress is fully grown (package said 8-10 days – it was ready on day 4!). Next to the cress is the oregano – tiny little sprouts coming up there. Rosemary not coming yet, but the basil is coming out. Iceberg and lettuce happily sprouting next to that, followed by leek, which is also showing slightly. Even one of the bell peppers have started showing up! So all is well in the windowsill!

Weather has also been looking up – we have had sun for 4 days straight! Unfortunately, it seems we’re going back to grey weather and rain again, but at least it’s not nearly as cold anymore as it was! Yay, spring is coming!

Currently I have seeds for – and plans to grow – the following (“in box” means just starting them inside):

• Cress – that’s easy, I know that won’t fail!
• Lettuce, 2 kinds. Will be sown in box tomorrow
• Bell pepper – will be sown in box tomorrow
• Leek – will be sown in box tomorrow
• Spring onion – to be sown outside from April
• Spinach – will be sown in box as soon as weather outside starts looking up
• Summer carrot – will be sown outside from April
• Beetroot – will be sown outside from May
• Basil – will be sown in box tomorrow
• Oregano – will be sown in box tomorrow
• Rosemary – will be sown in box tomorrow

Apart from that, I will have my strawberries that I mentioned in my last post, cherry tomatoes (I will cheat and buy a plant though) and then I’m considering getting a columnar cherry tree.

I am well aware that it’s a lot of stuff to put on such a small balcony, but hey, the worst that can happen is that it all goes wrong, and then I’ve lost a bit of money and time, and learnt a lot