A Temperamental Birthday Girl...

My wish for a Gardenia for my birthday was kindly granted, and so with great excitement I transplanted my Gardenia into a larger pot and placed her in a sunny yet protected corner of the balcony.

I carefully monitored her progress as she settles into her new environment, watering and feeding when I thought it was required.

But then it started happening - flowerheads dried up and or fell off for no apparent reason! Lots of them did! I was devastated as some of them looked ready to open, and I didn't know what to do.

I decided the best plan of attack was to go back to basics;

1. Check the soil level - Gardenia's have sensitive roots so need to be well protected. The soil level seemed a bit low so I topped it up with potting mix and compost.

2. Water - I checked the soil daily and gave her a nice long soak with water when needed.

3. Feed - as well as the compost when topping up the soil lever, each week I give a feed of liquid food after soaking. By soaking first and then giving the liquid feed, the plant gets the water they need, without wasting the liquid feed!

Thankfully this seemed to work! My Gardenia started to grow, and formed flower buds -  and this time,  they fattened up and bloomed!

Just as everything seemed on track, the aphids moved in! The had moved in quickly, massed around the new growth and flower buds! I began a daily routine of spraying a concoction of water, oil, detergent and sugar and am managing to keep them mostly under control. Phew!

K. xx

Morning Flowers :)

They looked so lovely and bright this morning I just had to share them... The white is my lovely Gardenia of course, and the pink is my tuberous bergonia!

Note to self - must check Bergonia for caterpilars! (See the holes!)

K xx

Seedlings Update

Over the weekend I thinned out my bean, radish and beetroot seedlings into larger more permanent containers as they'd all reached the '2nd-leaf' stage.

I'm so excited at the progress they are making, and can't believe how quickly they are growing! I took this photo yesterday, and when I checked them this morning, the beans (bottom) were already standing upright displaying 2 open leaves!

I actually bought these containers from Kmart for $2 each, including the trays! I put a thin layer of styrofoam in the bottom of each planter to assist with drainage, and as I was using old soil from some pots I had, I made sure to add blood and bone to give the nutrients the seedling will need. (Make sure to follow the directions for amounts on the packet!).

Once planted, give them a good water and leave them in a nice sunny spot.

My spinach seeds are also growing well..... and will need potting out soon.

And I can even see pea and sweet pea seedlings starting to push through! (No photo yet!)

K. xx

Super Cress!

Sewing Seeds

I had a busy gardening weekend - as well as planting Cress on Saturday, I got excited and also planted sweet peas, forget-me-nots, pansies...

beans and spinach (cress too!)....

and peas, radish and beetroot....

All now happily sprouting (hopefully!!) in their little trays..... not necessarily a conventional seedling tray, but fingers crossed it works!

Check back for when I share the ideas I have in store for these little guys :)

K. xx

The Original Survivors

After sadly saying goodbye to my damaged, pest overrun plants, I looked around and took stock of those that remained.

My two tomatoes were actually fruiting! They had been severely attacked by caterpillars, but the fruit was intact and delicious

The chilli was thriving - covered in green chilli's that turned a wonderful deep red when they ripened - and I had salvaged 2 of my strawberry plants, which needed some TLC.

The edible plants had by far fared the worst in the onslaught of pests.

Of the others, my star jasmine was taking off - climbing strongly and branching out. I'd lost my yellow daisy, but the pink was branching out. The last of the flowers on my Ivory Prince were fading, but the sharp green foliage added a nice structure to the garden.

My purple blob succulent was a bit dry, and my nemesia aromatica green and healthy, but wasn't flowering.

So, with only a handful of plants left, it was time to pay attention to the problems at hand - how to best encourage growth and get my plants to flower and flourish.

K. xx

Cress Update

This photo I took this morning - it has only been 3 days and my little seeds are making such great progress!

I'll be enjoying them in a salad, or garnishing a meal with them soon.

K. xx

Quick Cress

So as we're not living in the past for weeks until I get all caught up, here's a little something I got going over the weekend (Saturday).

For anyone who has ever wanted something so easy and so quick in their garden (or even not, your kitchen bench will do fine!), and as a bonus is edible, look no further than Cress!

All it takes is a little paper towel, and a container (can be as simple a container as you like - takeaway lids work fine...). I've chosen a cute little plate I picked up at my local dollar store.

Then just add seeds, and water...

And cover with paper to keep it in the dark until the seedlings start to sprout! Easy! I peeked at mine this morning and it's happening - I'll take a pic to post tomorrow so you can see how quick they progress.

K. xx

Overload!

Of course, it was only after I'd started my balcony garden with a huge surge of enthusiasm, that I realised I had bitten off a bit more than I could chew!

I'd started with too many plants, not enough knowledge and not enough planning.

Unfortunately, more than half my original edibles are no longer with us - engulfed by aphids and muched to within an inch of life by caterpillars, I decided to put them out of their misery :(

This experience taught me two things;

1. who my balcony garden enemies were going to be - aphids and caterpillars - we're still at war!

2. for my balcony oasis to be successful, I was going to have to take this more slowly - too many new plants all at once is just too much!

I decided I needed to take time to nurture my remaining plants until they were well established, and be carefully selective and allow the same attention to new plants introduced to the garden.

A few months have passed since this disaster, and my garden is growing well! Following posts will reflect on my gardening time that has passed (until I'm caught up!) and current adventures of my little oasis.

K. xx

Garden Dreaming...

When I moved into my place in July 2011, I had a lovely big tiled balcony. It sat stark naked for a good 4 months before I got tired of looking at those hard surfaces of brick and tile, and started longing for something to brighten it up, and give me something to look after!

I started out 'planning' my balcony garden by studying the movement of the sun - how much sun, at what time of the day - and thinking about what I wanted to achieve with my garden.

My balcony faces north-east, getting full sun in the morning, and full shade in the afternoon. My goals came down to 4 main points - organic, edible, always colourful, and fragrant.

I already had in mind a number of plants I would like to grown on my balcony - jasmine (for it's fragrance), herbs (love to cook), tomatoes (because they are delicious) and beans (also delish!). Only thing I needed was pots, soil and the plants themselves!

So, after a trip to my local garden centre, I set about potting tomatoes, beans, jasmine, daisy's, capsicums, a purple blob and an ivory prince (plant profiles to come soon!). I watered them in, and shuffled pots around until I was happy with the arrangement.

With my garden now planted, the watching and waiting began....

Inspiration and Beginnings

For Christmas last year I was given a great book "The Edible Garden", written by Indira Naidoo. It was a very appropriate gift as I had not long before started dabbling in gardening with the aim of filling my balcony with fragrant and edible goodies.

Indira's book is filled with such great information, in such a fun format, that it inspired me to start this blog to record my successes, temporary defeats, and tips for gardening in pots.

Stay tuned!

K. xx