Planning plants

I injured my back a couple of months ago, making me more or less immobile for several weeks. Unfortunately this happened at the time when I should've started planting seeds for the summer's plants, so I missed the opportunity to grow my own seedlings.

At least we can enjoy pretty flowers indoors, like this spring cactus.

Thus there's nothing new and exciting on the balcony yet, but I plan to remedy that soon! Sellers at the market already have all sorts of pretty things for sale. I just need to decide on a colour scheme for the year. I'm leaning towards mostly large red flowers this summer, with a few small-flowered white ones for contrast. What do you think?

While I decide, I can enjoy and nurture the little bit of green that's already present on the balcony. The perennials have survived another winter and are waking up. Won't be long before they cover that whole corner!

A Peek at the Balcony

Already past midsummer and I haven't posted any photos of the balcony garden? Tsk. I'm getting old and slow.

This is not because I'd be unhappy with it for some reason; quite the opposite. I think this is my favourite flower box arrangement yet! Marigolds, lobelias and pansies cover the edges, while a couple of miniature sunflowers are growing in the middle (I grew them from seeds myself, so they're a bit slower to bloom than the rest).

Yes, pansies! This is the first time ever they've survived more than a couple of weeks on our hot and windy balcony. I think the secret was perfect timing with the planting (early enough for them to properly take root before the hot days) and a bit of luck with the weather.

The table basket is looking pretty nice this year too! The stonecrop or Sedum on the left is one that survived winter, whereas the one on the right is a new acquaintance. The leaves on the new one are decorative enough on their own, but I'm also curious to see what the flowers are like. Not long now!

My balcony garden 2012 - a review

No, this isn't the whole harvest. It wasn't that bad.

Summer 2012 here in Finland was not a good year for the balcony garden - cold and rainy weather with little sun meant sad plants. It's no wonder then that the harvest was also pretty sad this year.

It wasn't all tears and gnashing of teeth, though. I found a few cool new plant acquaintances which will definitely return another summer. As I prefer to look on the bright side of things, I thought I'd look at some of the gardening highlights of the year instead of crying over all the wasted seeds I planted.

I went with pinks, reds and whites as the main colours this summer, with a few spots of bright blue providing contrast.

The seating corner looked much as it has previous years, with the vine and hosta doing quite well in the big planter, and with a gorgeous dahlia providing colour on the little table.

The dahlia was an irresistible shade of bright pink, with darker pink edges on the petals, and it kept on flowering long into September. Oh dahlias, you never let me down, no matter what the weather brings.

 

The other decoration on the table was a basket planted with a couple of perennial succulents. Getting these two was one of the best decisions I've made for the balcony, for they are perfect for its normal conditions; hot and sunny. They did very well, filling up the whole basket over the course of the summer. I hope they'll survive the winter!

The main flower box was planted with white and blue lobelias, red petunias and a pink-and-red new acquaintance, which Wikipedia tells me is called "Sweet William" in English. It also did very well, as did the petunias. Unfortunately the lobelias didn't last more than a month; victims of the crappy weather, I suppose.

The notables of the other corner, shown in the photo below, were the red tobacco plant (always a good choice, it seems) and a pretty silver plant whose name I can't remember. There was also a mini rose planted with them, but the rose didn't like the poor weather at all and gave up pretty quickly.

On the right, with yellow flowers and huge leaves, grew a cucumber plant which produced the most awesome cucumbers ever. Seriously, I have NEVER eaten cucumbers as good as these. Ever. Definitely one to plant another year!

So there you have it, the highlights of my balcony gardening summer of 2012! If you've read this far, well done. I guess you really like plants!

What to do on a lazy Sunday afternoon?

It's already September and the rainy, cold days have arrived. Sunny days are few and far between (have been all summer this year, really), so when the sun was shining prettily this weekend, Mr Morrgan and I went on a spur-of-the-moment trip to the nearby botanical gardens.

Alas and alack, the weather decided to play tricks on us and by the time we arrived at the gardens, the sky was full of dark clouds and the rain was only minutes away (hence the somewhat grey photos).

We would not be deterred, however, and made the most of the outer gardens while we could. When the rain started we rushed into the greenhouses and had a pretty good time looking at all manner of cool, pretty and just plain weird plantlife housed within. Afternoon trip saved!

Signs of Spring

The ground may still be covered in snow outside, but signs of spring are beginning to emerge. Last Sunday the sun's light in the living room was so warm and pretty that I wished I could have gone out on the balcony to enjoy it.

This morning, this little one surprised me with its first flowers ever. The poor thing had a tough start on life and barely survived at one point, but look at it now! Plenty more buds to go too!

The plant's called a Drunkard's Dream (Rhipsalis salicornioides) - the funny name comes from the shape of the "leaves" or whatever you'd call the stem segments; they look a bit like tiny bottles. (At least that's what they're supposed to look like, can't quite see it in mine.)

So here's to spring! Won't be long now!

Reds in the Garden

Just a few quick shots from the balcony garden, showing off some of the red hues this time.

As soon as I saw this dahlia, I just had to get it. I've never seen one like this before!

Lots of flowers throughout the summer, it's been gorgeous.

The pelargonia has been another gorgeous one, full of flowers. It's the first time I've tried one in the balcony and it seems to be a perfect fit for the conditions.

The indian cress turned out just as I wanted for the first time, after a couple of years of semi-failed attempts. This year it finally does a good job of covering one end of the balcony. It also does a good job of luring the pests away from my edible plants, both pretty and practical!

The Balcony Garden: Time for Yellow

Yikes, it's already August?? Where did the summer go. ._.

On the positive side, August is when the balcony looks its best, if everything's gone well. We were away from home quite a lot in July and the plants would have wanted more water than they got because of this, but the balcony is still looking better than last year.

One recent development is that the yellow flowers have finally opened! Here's the first sunflower:



This one is called Black-Eyed Susan, a pretty vine that climbs among my woodbine.


I like to have the colour scheme change a bit as the seasons change, so the timing of these is perfect. Nevertheless, the overall impression of my little green corner is still red/orange and green:

Very pleased with how it's turned out this year. =)

There's still 3 more sunflowers that haven't started flowering yet and the Black-Eyed Susan has only just gotten started, so it'll be interesting to see how the view changes this month.

The Balcony Garden Grows

It occurred to me that I haven't posted anything about this summer's balcony plants yet. Oh noes! Time to fix this!

I'll start by showing the main flower box and how it's evolved over the past 3 months. This year I'm going for red and white, with a bit of yellow here and there. This box has red Petunias and a red Pelargonium (sorry, not sure what the English name for them is), together with white Lobelias (one of my faves).

May

June

July

Very pleased with how it's turned out, both colourwise and in shape. =)

I also got tomatoes this year too, since they were such a success last year. This time I have one bushy one like last year, and one new kind, a tall climby one. (Great scientific terms, eh? ;) The tall one shown below is almost as tall as me!

It may beat the tiny bushy one in size, but the little one was the first to produce a ripe tomato - spotted the first one today!

Solving a Fruit Fly Problem

A few days ago I discovered that a cloud of fruit flies had appeared in the fruit bowl.

Ack! Ick! Yuck! What to do?!

Fortunately, I have suitable minions, also known as Drosera capensis or the Bane of Fruit Flies. They were more than happy to help me set a devious trap for the flies.


Muahaha. Feast, my pretties!

(Aaaaaand considering the topic of this post, I just have to link to this animation again.)

Roses are red... and pink!

During the two brief vacations I've taken this summer, we went to visit my parents up north. As usual, I spent as much time as possible in their garden together with my mother - digging, planting, weeding and just enjoying the pretty views. I thought I'd share!

This little beauty is called 'Sommerwind'. I love those kinda scalloped petals, they give the rose such a lovely, romantic look.

The reds on this rose and dahlia are so vibrant!

There's plenty of red raspberries too, as well as strawberries, redcurrants, blackcurrants and gooseberries. Yum!

Another pink beauty.

These lilies were planted a couple years ago and some of them we got as "surprises" - we had no idea what colours they would be. Due to a lily-eating meanie, this is the first year we actually saw them. They turned out to be rather fantastic surprises. =)

Photos from the balcony garden

How did I survive those 10 or so years without a balcony or garden? By spending a lot of time in my parents' garden and having my aquariums filled with an ridiculous amount of plants, I suppose. Seriously though, now I can't imagine going back to living without an opportunity to grow my own edibles and flowers.

Ah, such pretties. I think these marigolds are the first plants I've grown from seeds to flowering plants. So easy, so satisfying.

My first balcony-grown pea pod! It ain't summer without fresh peas.

A funky striped tomato! I don't know what was up with this one, but it tasted just fine. Didn't kill us either.

And here's an overview of about half of the balcony. Had I been smart I would have cleaned away the tools and such under the table before taking the photo. Oh well.

Tuesday Finds: Summer Meadows

Midsummer Meadows Stud Earrings by
SoleDeVita.etsy.com

Sunlit Meadow Handspun Art Yarn by
WeirdAndTwisted.etsy.com

The Meadow Earth Light by
paperplanet.etsy.com

Being Framed Sun Necklace by
vadjutka.etsy.com

Tuesday Finds: For the Garden

Here it is, the tomato that was the greenish orange-yellow thing in the previous post. Once the process started, it didn't take long for my first ever homegrown tomato to turn a lovely bright red. Nor did it take long for us to eat it. =) Yum!

So, this week's Tuesday Finds are inspired by this giant cherry tomato - all sorts of neat things for the garden/gardener.

Treapot - Upcycled Teapot Birdhouse by
ThePaisleySpoon.etsy.com

Large Bee Hotel by
Wudwerx.etsy.com

Gardening Paper Pot Maker by
WoodElements.etsy.com

Vintage Silverware Garden Markers by
monkeysalwayslook.etsy.com