Spring Plans for 2018

So there has been some time since we have last posted on the Blog.

It has been a busy family time last year with a new member of the family "Marley Bloom" and Oscar is growing up so fast!

But with a new season comes a new plan!

So with the help from a lovely gardening app we have planned out this years veg garden.

So far we have 4 different Basil plants on the go...Thai, Genovese, Dark Opal, Lemon

2 Weeks old:

In time will look like the following:

Dark Opal

Lemon

Thai

Genovese

We also planted outside our Garlic Bulbs "Provence Wight" (just before the winter frost) and there are looking very happy!

Also just started Propagating some Pumpkin plants and looking good only 1 week old.

Also Catnip...

Weekend Harvest - Sept 2012

Early September last year, I was very busy on the balcony, harvesting a few of my crops and storing them away. Firstly the two varieties of the Chilies we had been growing were ready to pick, the 'Inferno Chilli' which have stayed green for a while and don't seem to want to turn red, were picked and then the red 'Hot Chilies', which are a cute small size.

Also picked were the last of the Peppers (sweet), which have grown a lot better this year and a lot bigger than the previous, they seem to have really enjoyed this year on the balcony.

The two Chilli varieties were washed placed in a bag, labeled and put in the freezer for later use and the Peppers (sweet) were also washed, but put in the fridge instead for instant use, they tasted great in a stir fry later that week.

Best Courgettes Yet 2012

Another unfinished blog I never got around to completing, last year I had a great crop of Courgettes and these were two of the best ones from each variety. Starting with my round variety called 'Tondo di Piacenza', and then my long variety called 'All Green Bush'; they look and tasted gorgeous.

Sadly I have no garden or balcony at the moment, so I will miss growing these this year.

                                                                     Photo: Laura Lunt  Date: August 2012

                                                       Photo: Laura Lunt  Date: August 2012

Harvested Cabbage from 2012

I've just been looking through my blog which I must say I have neglected over the last few months, due to my move and I've come across a few blogs I'd started, this being one.

Last year I grew my first ever batch of Cabbage and I'm happy to say that they turned out very well. I was a little reluctant as I did loose quiet a few in the first few months, but during the summer they came on leaps and bounds and I got four great heads of Cabbage to show for it.

These have since been chopped up, blanched and put in the freezer for when I need them. So far I've made Cabbage and leftover vegetable soup with one batch.

                                                        Photo: Laura Lunt  Date: 2012

                                                        Photo: Laura Lunt  Date: 2012

 

                                                       Photo: Laura Lunt  Date: 2012

First Round Courgette

This year I decided to try a different variety of Courgette, instead of just planting a few of the normal long variety, 'All Green Bush', I also planted some round ones called 'Tondo di Piacenza', which came free in a garden magazine I bought.

Last year I had a bad experience with my 'All Green Bush' Courgettes, out of four plants they only produced one Courgette, which was very dissappointing. But I hoped I could do better this year with two varieties and I also placed these nearer to the front of the balcony, so they could get more sun.

                                                                     Photo: Laura Lunt  Date: August 2012
The round variety were actually put in a hanging basket, and the results have been great, I currently have several Courgettes coming through, which I am so happy about, they obviously love the hanging basket. The normal long variety plant is in a pot near to the front of the balcony and this has tons of flowers on, which have just started to open, so fingers crossed I'll have some Courgettes coming through soon.

This Years First Tomatoes

Over the last couple of months the Tomatoes have been outside, growing away and enjoying the lovely sunshine we've had now and then, when it's decided to show itself. The first two Moneymaker Tomatoes were removed earlier this week and were a gorgeous red colour, they're skins were a little bitty, but this might be because I haven't feed them enough over the last few weeks, which I have now been doing for the rest.

                                                                     Photo: Laura Lunt  Date: August 2012

The other two varieties, Gardeners Delight an Roma VF, are now happily growing away also, I was a little worried for a while as the leaves were going crazy and lots of flowers were coming through, but no Tomatoes, but having had a look this week they now seem to have gone crazy.

                                                                     Photo: Laura Lunt  Date: August 2012

Chilies Planted Up & Growing

This years Chilli plants have been planted up in their final place for a few weeks now and are now sitting comfortably on the Livingroom windowsill. We have one Thai Dragon Chili plant, one Hot Chili Pepper 'Apache' plant (store bought) and one Inferno Chili plant. The non-store bought Chili plants were grown from seeds from last years plants, and as stated in an earlier blog, I'm not sure what these will come out like, due to the pollen of the plants being mixed together, but I can't wait to see how they grow and also how hot they may be.

                                                                  Photo: Laura Lunt  Date: June 2012

I've also planted and finally managed to germinate some Cayenne Pepper Chili plants, which I have three and also the Hotscotch (Hot) Chili Pepper plants (no photos), again I have three of, these are all nicely planted in two big pots and sitting on the windowsill of the spare bedroom, they get great late evening sun there.

                                                                     Photo: Laura Lunt  Date: August 2012

At the moment the three in the livingroom are growing really well and already have a lot of flower buds on them, which hopefully will turn into lots and lots of Chilies and then I can get on with another year of making Chili Jam and my lovely boyfriend Zac, can test out a few more versions of his Hot Sauce.

                                                                     Photo: Laura Lunt  Date: August 2012
 

Delight of Spring Onions

Yesterday I decided to look into what may be in a few pots that I planted up last year. As I didn't label them, which is always a big mistake, I had thought I'd planted both Spring Onions and Leeks into these pots, but none of the growing plants ever looked like Leeks.

                                                        Photo: Laura Lunt  Date: 08 July 2012

So, I decided to investigate and dig into these pots and see what I actually had and to my surprise I had three pots of Onion (Spring) White Lisbon Winter Hardy, 22 in total. Not sure what happened to the Leeks, they may have died off, but these looked great.
 

                                                        Photo: Laura Lunt  Date: 08 July 2012

And they came in very handy last night as we used them in our Chinese crispy shredded beef we had for dinner, very fresh and delicious, another must have for next years garden.

Courgettes Two Types

It didn't take long for the Courgettes to start growing, once sown. Within a week two of these were popping out of the propagator soil, I have one Courgette 'Tondo di Piacenza' which is a round variety and one Courgette 'All Green Bush', which is a normal long variety.

                                         Photo: Laura Lunt  Date: June 2012

These have now been planted outside, as I lost a couple of the Strawberry plants, I've placed the round Courgette variety in here and potted another one up in another individual pot.

                                                    Photo: Laura Lunt  Date: June 2012

Brussels Sprouts Not Lost

For a while I thought I'd lost the Brussels Sprout plants I've been growing, they seemed to have suffered a lot while I was away on holiday for a week, but it looks like I may have actually had a few survive, which I re-planted up a few weeks ago.

I originally grow so many that I gave a pot full to my mum.

                                                                                  Photo: Laura Lunt  Date: June 2012

In total I managed to save four of the plants, one I've planted on its own and the other three in a long pot, they are very small at the moment, but hopefully they'll grow and I'll have some sprouts ready to eat at Christmas.

                                                                  Photo: Laura Lunt  Date: June 2012

First Strawberries of the Year

Last year I created some Runners from the 'Alice' Strawberry plants I got from Thompson & Morgan, see blog Strawberry Runners for Beginners. The new Runners were left in my mini-greenhouse to over winter and around April they were planted up into hanging baskets.

                                            Photo: Laura Lunt  Date: June 2012

Unfortunately I started with four plants and lost two while I was a way on holiday at the end of May. But within a few weeks the others started to show some Strawberries coming through and this week I managed to pick the first four which were ripe to eat... delicious.

                                                   Photo: Laura Lunt  Date: July 2012

Cabbage Growing Stronger

I may have had a few down turns with the Cabbage to begin with, I lost around 6 of my batch when they were first planted out, but they seem to going from strength to strength now.

                                                                  Photo: Laura Lunt  Date: April 2012

I have six plants growing away at the moment in two different spots on the balcony, some in a pot near the back, which I need to constantly water and a couple in the large tub hanging over the balcony, which get a lot of water from rainy May/June months we've currently having.

                                                                                   Photo: Laura Lunt  Date: June 2012

All doing well I'll have some great Cabbage to share with the family soon.

Strawberry Runners into Plants

Not wanting to buy any new Strawberry plants this year, last year I decided to pot up some Runners from the 'Alice' Strawberry plants I bought. Luckily all four plants grew really well and were eventually individually potted up for over wintering, during our colder months in my little greenhouse.

                                                                     Photo: Laura Lunt  Date: 15 April 2012

Winter is now over and the runners have established into great new plants with health leaves, so a couple of weeks ago (late April) these were potted up into their final growing places, two hanging baskets with two plants in each. The baskets were lined with new moss and new vegetables compost was added, with a few water crystals to help with watering.

                                                                    Photo: Laura Lunt  Date: 15 April 2012

These already a few flowers showing, so hopefully I'll have some Strawberries in early summer, ready to pick and eat.

Aloe Vera - New Shoots

My Aloe Vera plant hasn't been looking too good lately, but I noticed the other day that there was three new shoots coming off the plant, which I carefully re-potted over the weekend, hopefully these will survive. I mixed the old soil from the plant with some of the vegetable compost, which will hopefully give them a little feed to encourage some growth.

                                                          Photo: Laura Lunt  Date: March 2012

As for the old plant I'm hopeing to save the nurishing liquid from its leaves, as its great for burns and other healing methods... I just have to figure out how to do this, so I guess I'll be hitting the old gardening herb books, as well as my new book Grow Your Own Drugs by James Wong, to see how I can use this.

Re-potting in March: Part Two

Sunday was a beautiful day, so I took the opportunity to re-pot some of the vegetables I have on the windowsill at home. Most of these had now grown to a good handling size, so they were easy to transport to their new pots. Soil wise, as I still have a whole bag of the Grow Your Own Vegetable Compost, which contains 6 months of feed, I mixed this with some of the water crystals I have and filled up the 20cm pots I bought last year with the mixture.

For the Tomato varieties, Moneymaker, Gardeners Delight and Roma VF (Plum), I selected the three strongest shoots and placed one in each pot, making sure each was firmly fixed into the centre of the soil. These were all then carefully labeled, placed back on the windowsill and watered.

                                                                     Photo: Laura Lunt  Date: March 2012

The same process was done with the Brussels Sprout seedling; only these were a lot smaller and needed a lot more care when re-planting. I picked only the best and strongest looking shoots, making sure each had at least three or four leaves, which were a bright healthy green colour. I placed ten seedlings into two of the 20cm pots', making sure each shoot was firmly put into place, so it didn't fall over easily and carefully trickled some water into each pot.

                                                                    Photo: Laura Lunt  Date: March 2012

These still a few more vegetables on the windowsill slowly growing away, I've even seed a few more Chili seedlings starting to come through, but the Peppers (sweet) and Aubergines are still struggling a bit and I'll also be potting up some Courgettes very soon.

Re-potting in March: Part One

It was a little chilly and also a little rainy on Saturday, but I managed to pop onto the balcony and re-pot a few of my vegetables from the mini-greenhouse, which have been overwintering for a few months now and the Sweet Pea plants, which I've been growing in doors.

Last weekend I bought a new large pot with a lovely red flower design on it, which I filled with Grow Your Own Growbag compost from HomeBase, as this has up to 6 weeks feed within the soil and some water crystals. I planted the seven Sweet Pea plants that have grown to around 20cm tall, at the back of the pot supported by small canes and at the front of the pot I planted four of the thirteen Cabbage plants with collars, which have been overwintering in the mini-greenhouse.

                                                                                  Photo: Laura Lunt  Date: March 2012

                                                                                  Photo: Laura Lunt  Date March 2012

As for the rest of the Cabbage plants, these were re-planted in the long tube that recently held my herbs. Along with some of the old compost from the herbs, I added the last of the organic compost I had, mixing this together and then I added a top layer of the GYO Growbag compost, with some water crystals added for extra help with watering. The last nine cabbages were then planted around 10cm a part, with a Cabbage Collar added to each plant.

On the balcony itself, I re-potted the Carrots and Leeks, which have been slowly growing and again have been overwintering. The Leeks were separated and around 5-7 Leeks were added to each pot, as for the Carrots, these were carefully moved into larger, deeper pots for better growth, and all of these again contained the GYO Growbag compost and water crystals.

                                                                                  Photo: Laura Lunt  Date: March 2012

                                                                                  Photo: Laura Lunt  Date: March 2012

To help some of the other plants feed better, I also added a Miracle-Grow Controlled Release Tablet to each of the Garlic and Onion bags, as these will slowly feed the vegetables when they are watered for up to six months.

And all of the plants and vegetables on the balcony were then well watered.

First Attempt at Garlic

Last year my boyfriend Zac bought some Garlic plants that had already been started off, at the local garden centre. I planted them in one of the large pots, but they never seemed to do anything. Eventually they all died off except one, which just wouldn't give up.

This ended up in a pot on its own and left over winter and a couple of weeks ago it started to look a little bit straggly, so I took the bulb out to dry out and this is what I was left with.

                                                                       Photo: Laura Lunt  Date: March 2012

More Garlic has been planted for late last year, so hopefully attempt number two will be a lot better.

The Little Balcony 2012

As regular readers of The Little Balcony will know, I started documenting the coming and goings of balcony growing life through my blog, in early June of last year. Our new London flat's balcony was a great little experiment to try and see what could and could not grow, having only ever had a very tiny balcony before this one, I through myself into this and six months on, I have learned so much more than I ever through I would.

The New Year is now upon us and this year I want to take everything I learned from last year and make the balcony even better, this year. Planning has already begun, with a stock check of seeds and I've been keeping a close eye on the Onions, Garlic, Cabbage, Carrots and Leeks which have been overwintered from late last year, along with the Strawberry Runners. I would have preferred a colder winter, maybe even some snow to help everything a long, but I keep peeking outside and they all seem to be doing well regardless.

Vegetable sowing and growing plans are in the early stages, while doing the seed stock check; I've also been putting a growing chart together for what I have also, so I'm able to plan out the best way to fit all of the different crops into the balcony. I'm not giving any hints away as of yet, but there will be some second goes at vegetables that didn't grow very well last year and a few new ones that I've been desperate it try out.

As for the cook book, I really must say that last year I didn't do a lot on this, as I wanted to concentrate more on the balcony and seeing what I could grow. Having taken the time to do this, as well as using all the vegetables grown to test out recipes, I'm now ready to start putting the first draft together and I'll hopefully have the book complete soon.

Poor Growing Aubergines

Part of creating 'The Little Balcony', was that I wanted to grow vegetables I'd never tried before, so the Aubergine was one of these and I thought it would be a great challenge. I started these off at the same time as most of the other vegetables, but I did have some difficulty with them growing at first, so I placed glass jars (my homemade Cloches) over them during the coolers months of the first part of the year and this did help them to survive, but their growth was still very slow.

                                                                                  Photo: Laura Lunt  Date: July 2011

After months of watering and feeding, they start to grow steadily stronger and by July they were around 20cm tall and looking healthier every day. Finally after much waiting the first flower arrived which meant the vegetable would follow soon, but much to my disappointment, this did eventually die away and fall off the plant.

                                                                                  Photo: Laura Lunt  Date: August 2011

Its now mid September and even thought there are more flowers appearing on all the plants (I have four), due to the cold nips of weather we are starting to get, I'm not holding out for any fruit this year. I have learned a lot from this experience and like my Courgettes, which so far has only produced one vegetable, I will be planting these again next year to see if I can grow them better.

Strawberries Over Winter

I've been a little puzzled about what to do with my Strawberry plants over the winter months, as most Strawberry plants have a life cycle of 3 to 4 years and as Strawberries are perennial plants, so will die back and re-grow the following year, I wondered if the harsh winters we have would effect them much. After a little research and some advice from the gardeners on the UK Veg Gardeners website, I've come up with a plan.

Last night I headed out onto the balcony and began to remove the netting and homemade brackets I made to hold the netting up, I then removed all the straw from inside the baskets, which has been protecting the Strawberries while they grow and I also started to cut off all the old withering or dead leaves. There were a few Strawberry runners still trying to establish from the mother plant, one of these was ready to be removed, which I did, but the other two still needs a little more time, so these have been left on.

As to what happens next, for now I've left the baskets hanging where they have been all summer, but once the weather starts to get a little colder, I'll remove these and place them in a sheltered place from the bitter wind and any snow we may get this winter.

One of the things I did read about is that Strawberry plants can also be covered with mulch (normally for ground plot based plants), straw or cloche's (poly tunnel, plastic or glass jars, fleece etc...) for a little added protection. As I have a lot of straw and I'm also planning on buying some cloche's for other delicate plants, I may also do this just to make sure they get through the winter safely.