Just a quick update – been horribly busy, but in a good way Things are still living on the balcony, but one of the tubs of carrots as well as the sweetpeas kinda died due to lack of sunlight, so I now use those tubs to prop up the other carrots and the leek tub, hoping they will get even more sun then.

Also just planted some more lettuce after eating most of what I have; here’s to hoping the weather will still be good for a couple of months

Now, pics!

… because now the peppers are growing, yay! And the tiny tomatoes are tasty!

The first tiny batch of spring onions are ready and will be eaten tonight. Next year I will definitely sow them closer together; they should be able to manage that, and it’s one of those things I eat a lot of.

The oregano is also huge and ready; will eat that tonight as well!

Other than that, tomato plant has grown and made more tomatoes, and the peas are still racing. However, I doubt I will get any peppers this year, so will have to come up with an ingenious way of keeping them in my windowsill without the cats being able to get to them. We’ll see how that goes.

Strawberry plants are finally looking a bit healthier, but not showing much sign of berries. Will probably try new plants next year.

As you can hear, I’m already pondering what I will sow next year (or in the case of garlic, later this year), and so far spring onion, lettuce, spinach, tomato and various herbs are definitely in. The rest is still a bit up in the air and depends on the yield, if any.

I have no idea why I didn’t think of doing this before, but I have now added a homemade irrigation system (read: upside down soda bottles) to most of my pots. But now it’s done and should make caring for everything easier.

I have had to cut off some of the “branches” on the tomato – while I was gone, they went all shrivelled and yellow, so just in case it was something infecting it, I decided to just cut them off. That being said, it’s now bearing tiny little tomatoes, yay!

The strawberries won’t really give anything this year; next year I’ll be getting new plants. It’s not all my fault though; my mum told me that her batch (we both got ours from my aunt) isn’t really showing any promise either.

Anyway, no more writing; time for pictures!

I knew the sweetpeas would grow fast; but they’re surprising even me! These last 3 days haven’t been awesome weather wise – loads of rain and not that much sun – but the peas seem to like it!

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

Summer has finally hit Copenhagen, and I have been hanging out in the nearby huge park quite a bit – I might even get a bit of a tan this year!

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

First off, the tubs on the floor (and yes, I know I have to sweep the floor, but I planted stuff today and spilled a bit of dirt)

The balcony boxes, where I moved the strawberries to. Also, loads of lettuce!

In the greenhouse

It’s time for a bit of news from the garden!

My tomato plant is flowering and has grown a lot since I got it. The peppers are looking good, but are still quite small. The newly planted basil is peeking out of the ground now.

Some of the lettuce is at an edible size now – they’re not huge yet, but I can’t wait much longer before first harvest! Also that will also mean I can plant new lettuce so I can get fresh stuff all through summer.

I have had to remove weeds from the balcony boxes – damn birds seem to have dropped some seeds in between my rosemary and oregano. But it’s gone now luckily.

The single tulip that was blooming was cut and put in a vase, so I could get something else planted. I put the flower in a vase on my table – and it survived exactly three minutes, before the cats were chewing on it *sigh*. So had to chuck it, since it was all mangled.

Since removing the tulips freed up two balcony boxes, I decided to move my strawberries to one of the boxes (unfortunately two of the plants I got from my mum seem to have perished, so only have three left) – this way they’ll also get loads of sun. I just have to start thinking about the best way to put net over them to make sure the birds don’t eat my strawberries; but there’s still quite a bit of time to figure that out.

I planted sweetpeas in the tub that held the strawberries before, and the last bacony box will have spinach; but the spinach seeds are currently soaking in water, so they won’t be planted for a few hours yet. Which is good, since I really need to study for my exam on Thursday morning! No more procrastination allowed! At least not until my camera battery has recharged so I can give you guys some pictures

Hi! I’ve been horribly busy lately, so haven’t had time to update; sorry! Things are happening on the balcony though; especially the lettuce is growing fast, but the tomato is also showing signs of getting its very first flower! Unfortunately the weather hasn’t been awesome here; we’re still battling light night frost some nights, and days are around 10c and cloudy; I really hope the weather gets better soon!

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!

I fear you no more, threat of light night frost; I got a greenhouse! My mum was lucky and got a hold of a small metal-and-plastic greenhouse (49*69*126cm) in one of the supermarkets near where she lives and brought it over. It fits perfectly on my balcony, and meant that I could plant my peppers into their pots and put them outside (peppers are nightshade, as is tomato, and the leaves etc are poisonous; so not something I would leave my kitties with access to). The greenhouse has 3 shelves, but so far only the top 2 are in use for plants – the bottom one has spare pots and such.

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!