And now for the second half of the monster progress post.
The view outside:
Planted two types of French marigold, Naughty and Red Marietta. Supposedly the aphids don’t like them, but I wish they’d grow a bit faster. Repotted the lavenders and they’ve gone from grey to green and lo and behold, the first ever flower bud has appeared at last. Next to those are this year’s purple and red carrots. Then the Swiss chard, some peaky coriander from Tesco, rock samphire that’s just out from under a cloche, a cute little sage plant and some possibly sickly chives.
The purple carrots we planted too late last year are having a bit of a renaissance after being dug up and spaced out a bit better in the grow bag, and the compost replaced with better soil. Don’t think the roots have actually grown much. Have read that year old carrots aren’t good for much except for seed. Which is fine.
The folks have several giant fennel bushes in their garden wilderness and because they spread ridiculously they gave me a couple that seemed to have died, but one has valiantly come back. (The other, sadly, remains quite dead).
The corner of neglect. No amount of swanky filters can cover that up unfortunately. Luckily there’s not a lot to be done with the potatoes we planted in Feb after cleaning out the failed bag from last year. They shot up very quickly and we managed to do the covering up with soil thing as they grew. Also in shot, some ugly brown storage containers and one of the balcony chairs that could really do with a facelift. A project for the coming months I think.
Almost didn’t include this, the shame. The Swiss chards we planted in one of these troughs all died when they went outside so decided to space the surviving onions out a bit better. Looking a bit weedy though, think it was a bit cold and stormy when they went outside a month ago and this past week have had too much sun and not enough water.
But on a brighter note:
Spotted! Heron having a bit of an aul preen across the stream.
Found some cute little solar powered beach house lights at Homebase. Might put them outside to replace the broken ladybird and bee lights from last year.
And finally:
Bonus! Not stuff with stems, but recently found my fossil collection from when I was little. Once knew what all these actually were. Seems a shame to have them tucked away in a box. Looking for ideas how to display them in our Ikea FABRIKÖR cabinet (can just see it above)
Signing off for now, coming up soon, unnecessary balcony cooking (and hopefully not setting fire to the potato plants) (strictly speaking, it’s diy camping stoves and we’re probably not going to cook anything, just attempt to boil some water perhaps to prove that we can, but to all intents and purposes – balcony cooking). Also, some ridiculous attempts at keeping plants alive and watered when you’re going away and are too wimpy to ask the neighbours.
So it’s been a while and we’ve been a bit caught up with work, but have been slowly making progress with the balcony and window plants. We’ve taken the bamboo wigwams off the big aloes because they seem to have stabilised in their new ceramic pots. The bamboo is now supporting the two large tomato plants, although we might need something bigger for the black cherry tomato pretty soon.
But first, here are some pics from 11th April that we forgot to post:
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And here’s the view from today:
The baby Black Crim tomato plant is doing well.
The smaller of the two tomato plants, which we thought were both black cherry, is in fact a surviving Black Crim! The flowers are bigger and look at this beast! Currently measures about 1 5/8″ x 2″ and has beautiful dark green stripey markings. Hopefully we’ll get a few more…
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Black Crim flowers, lots of. We’ve been having a little fun trying to get them pollinated, but that’s for another post.
The black cherry tomato plant has started fruiting, SO EXCITING!! They’re not ready yet, but getting there. The folks say they’ve come quite early for the season and also that cherry tomatoes seem to grow easier than bigger varieties. Dizzy with success right now. Giving them a weekly feed of course, and watering nearly every day. The leaves wilt very quickly when they’re drying out, then perk up just as fast.
The first black cherry tomato starting to take on a rusty orange tone.
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Our previously poorly chilli plants (aphids last year!!) are perking up a bit with lots of new flowers and a couple of little chilli peppers. They’re still an odd shape but lots of little tiny shoots are sprouting out of the main stems so hopefully they’ll get a bit bushier and a little less lopsided.
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The original seeds seem to have been nicked from this. Got it in my stocking at Christmas. Stuck in some purple ruffles basil, Thai basil, sweet Genovese basil, cinnamon basil and coriander. All but one type are up as little seedlings with the coriander the quickest off the mark. Planted it up at 4 in the morning after a night out, so wasn’t in the best state to remember to mark which is which, will just have to wait and see.
The baby aloes don’t seem to have rooted so well, but they’re still alive. Trying to pawn them on unsuspecting house guests.
At last! The first batch of Alpine strawberries didn’t grow at all. Planted some more in this little pot and nothing happened for weeks and weeks so popped exactly 3 more seeds in and now bam we have 7!
Our rescue poinsettia looking very beautiful with its red leaves
So this is turning into a monster post so gonna divide it into two. Coming up, the view from outside and some wildlife spotted from between the bars.
balcony d8 