My balcony garden update…

Yesterday, I was asked by a dear friend about how my balcony garden was doing. And whether there were pictures to share. Well… the weather had not been very good for the past 3 weeks or so. The constant rain and sometimes strong wind have been playing a little havoc with my plants… not to mention the chilly summer weather. Eiik!! Since when is it supposed to be chilly in summer? Err.. since this year… ?

It certainly felt weird and quite frustrating, too… having to walk around at home wearing a jacket and socks… because it was quite chilly… in summer! Ai yoh… the weather is really becoming topsy turvy lah!

But yesterday was nice and sunny…. for nearly the whole day. So, I thought I would go and take some photos of my balcony garden… so that I can share on its development. It has been expanding slowly… but surely. And hopefully, now that the nicer weather is here (for longer stay, I hope!)… maybe I can plant a few more stuff… before the weather turns cold again in autumn. Or maybe… it might be warm in autumn?!

Anyway… I am sure some people will become a little green when they see these photos of my balcony garden…. or… maybe not! hehehe…

So here are some snapshots of my plants… as they looked yesterday in the beautiful weather. Enjoy ogling at them! 😉

My collection of plants has expanded steadily… from one end of the balcony… right to the other end!

These are those outside of the living room.

Some are already bearing fruits… some… I am still waiting for the fruit or roots to develop!

These are the ones that I planted from seeds. At the top are the radishes (the type that Yen grew… and which I therefore decided to grow as well! ;)) which are less than a week old. They are supposed to be ready to be harvested within 1 month. And below are: (from left) cherry tomatoes, carrots and onions (which is flowering) The carrots certainly took a beating during the spell of heavy rain since their seedlings are quite fragile. I lost some even though I moved them whenever the rain seemed too heavy.

And I started a bit late for my cherry tomatoes… having only planted them in June… when I should have done so in March or April as soon as the winter’s cold was over. But still…

I saw these on two of the plants… flower buds! Which means… tomatoes coming soon! Or maybe not that soon lah… 🙂

But at least… I will get to taste these first.

My long cucumber plant… whose leaves no longer seem as green and beautiful in comparison with what they looked like a month ago before the rain spell! But at least… I know that I will get to taste the cucumbers… I should think… and hope!

The cornichons (or mini cucumbers) too seemed to have suffered the same fate.

And these are (from left) my bird’s eye chili plants (just starting to thrive once again after losing all their leaves and buds in my effort to try and get rid of the aphids… oops!), the small tropical lime (limau kasturi) surviving quite well so far… and my mint plant which is also starting to thrive again after going nearly baldy owing to dehydration when we were away on our holiday!

And then… of course these are my favourites… which I am sure will make some of my friends back home… turn a little green… hehehe…

Grapes!!! Yeayy… we have our own grape vines now…hehehe… a green variety and a purple variety.

Just waiting for them to ripen in another 2 months or so… so that I will have the  pleasure of plucking them… and eating them, too, of course! 🙂 I just hope I will get them to bear fruit again next year!

These are potato plants… which are currently flowering. The flowers are quite pretty, no? In case you are wondering why am I planting one of them in a plastic bag… well it’s because… I can! hehehe…

Potatoes can be grown in plastic bags… as long as you make sure there are enough drainage holes. But of course.. this is my first time growing potatoes… so I can only hope that there ARE some potatoes for me to harvest when the time comes!

And here are some photos of the plants growing outside my kitchen.

On the top shelf… more cherry tomatoes (from the same batch of seeds), a raspberry plant (which is not going to bear any fruit this year, that’s for sure!), pepper, strawberry… and garlic in the back row.

I have only just found out that garlic should be grown in autumn, as it needs the cold winter weather to help split the bulb (into cloves). Argghh… so I will have to wait a loooong time… before I can harvest my garlic lah! 😦

A closer look at my pepper and strawberry plants. They look quite good even though they are not bushy, do you not think so?

And on the lower shelf… wild strawberry plants… origano and salad in front;… chives and lemongrass at the back. Not sure if the lemongrass will thrive since I do not have a greenhouse… but I decided to try planting it anyway! 🙂

More strawberry plants on the railings… both commercially grown (on top) and the wild ones that I pinched from Mont Sauvabelin (below). It seems that I will get to eat wild strawberries again! Nice… 🙂

Thyme, rosemary and chives… must be some of the easiest plants to grow! I do not have to do much… except water them if the soil is a little dry… and yet they continue to grow so well! And as you can see…  one of my salads actually grows quite tall! hehehe… I hope to quickly finish off the salads in this planter box so that I can re-use the planter to plant something else!

And here are some parsley and basil (left picture) which are slowly starting to grow again.. after I pruned them heavily in order to try to get rid of the aphids. On the right… are some mungo bean plants that I am trying to grow… so that I can harvest the seeds. Unfortunately, they do not seem to grow as well I had hoped they would… but I will continue hoping lah!

And so… this concludes the update on my balcony garden. But in case you wonder if there is any other colour apart from green on my garden… the answer is…yes, of course! 🙂

I have these two on my balcony..

Christmas cactus (left) and dianthus (right).

Somehow… my Christmas cactus plants (which tend to flower during winter as they need long hours of darkness to grow their buds) decided to flower for me in summer! How about that? And these dianthus… whose seeds were pinched from the mum’s garden 3 years ago… have been flowering every year without fail… even when the plants were covered by snow in winter! Nice to have such a low maintenance flowering plant, no? 🙂

So… what do you think of my balcony garden… or should I say balcony vegetable garden? Did it pass muster? hehehe….

Other entries on my balcony garden:

• My straw-grown potatoes…
• Soaking up the last remaining beautiful sunshine in October…
• Settling back to the usual routine…
• Summer weather and balcony garden…
• Balcony garden update… my potato harvest …
• Why I needed the straws…
• My little friends in the garden…
• Taking a break… to enjoy the plants…
• Back to my little garden… after the holidays in Italy…
• Cherries and wild strawberries…at Mont Sauvabelin…
• My ‘little’ fruit plants…  
• A nice spring day… to be out on the balcony…