Hello Hivers! Happy Easter!
I hope you are enjoying the holiday with your family and friends. Today, I am sharing here the newly planted greens on my balcony. Can you imagine, we are in the 3rd week of April and it is still cold...6°C (42.8°F) in the morning!
I no longer have a garden since we moved from our former house to a flat about 20 months ago ( the former house had 4 bedrooms too big to clean for a retiree like me, lololols). My 16 sqm balcony now serves as the place for my container gardening. I am used to planting in containers in my former row house. The terrace was located way up near the house roof and no slugs could come and go as they did in the downstairs garden. In the new flat, the harvest last season was very satisfactory, particularly the tomatoes and elongated peppers as well as the eggplants. Please refer to the photo of my peppers below.
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The last time I posted about container gardening was a few weeks ago and I was writing about the new plants I got from the garden center. We thought that Spring had finally sprung. We had around 20°C + at that time and we were so happy about the warm temps. But, the following week had been a disaster! We had minus degrees at night and it snowed for a day. Some leaves of the tomato and the cukes got frozen.
The Old Geraniums....
At any rate, I am hoping that temps will continue to rise. The small onions are now developing nicely... I use the leaves for soups or to garnish the salad. When all the leaves are consumed, the onion bulbs become thin, so I just need to discard them.
My geraniums survived, when we left for Spain last October to escape cold Vienna, I placed them inside the flat and even with little water they survived the winter and now one has already buds (below pic). I love that patina of the one pot . The pots, two of 12 , were painted green and used for the geraniums that were hanging on the wall of the previous garden. The geraniums, which are now 3 years old, started to grow buds (refer to the pic below).
The Berries....
Last year I got a blackberry bush from the garden center... a young plant that immediately grew so fast and is now thriving so stark . The stalks or branches do not have thorns as compared to the raspberries. The raspberry had been a newbie plant taken from my former garden. Now it is starting to grow flowers and eventually the berries. I am excited already because it's on its 2nd year of growing.
I also have the celery on top left of the pic...this came from a celery I bought for cooking, tried to plant the base and now it is coming out again wonderfully. Next to it is the rosemary and the last is basil... The oregano is located beside the geraniums, below the herbs are the lettuce I got just the other day.
So these are the veggies in this season.... I got three different tomato varieties including the beefsteak tomatoes (huge ones), cherry tomatoes. I replaced the cucumber that got entangled in the spikes of a succulent , it broke while I was removing it from there and died off.
There are also three pepper varieties , red and yellow bell pepper, the elongated pepper as well as the green bell pepper . I have planted them in the sack of soil temporarily until I get new pots. I didn´t realize I got more peppers which I should not because the balcony is not that big...
The Culinary Herbs..
The Veggies...
The Trellis, the flowers....
This is the trellis that we put up to support the cukes as well as the aromatic honeysuckle (right) variety called "lonicera", please see below.
I am thanking the Hive Garden Community Team for initiating a place like this ...where everyone who loves gardening could learn new things, give gardening tips as well as interact with each other.
That would be all from my container garden... I´ll see you around!
GIF by @gremayo
All text and images are by the author, @mers
That would be all from my container garden... I´ll see you around!
Wow! Really even where you stay your container gardening is a success. I salute with your green thumb.
It´s a matter of mindset that if I plant something it should grow...abracadabra! And they all grew! I have an electrifying vibes that makes them grow, it´s true, no joke! Hahaha
How nice to see your lovely container garden, well organized. You made use of that space in your balcony and it is incredible to see the lettuce and the herbs. Thanks for sharing!
Hi @gremayo! I haven´t seen you for a while... still meeting deadlines? Anyways, thanks for the visit. Yeah, I try to make use of the space since I do not have a garden anymore. Many thanks.
I enjoyed your post so much. You have some nice organizational skills, to find a place for everything and take care of so many plants at the same time. Everything looks fine and is well taken care of.
Where I live, we are in autumn and approaching winter, so I need to do a little research about what I can plant now and how, since I just have a backyard, no indoor spaces fitting for plants. Anyways, my point is, I am going to look forward to your posts next spring, so maybe I can learn how to have some of those wonderful varieties of greens in my backyard.
Thanks for sharing! Best wishes.
Hey, thanks for reading my blog. Are you based in South Africa now.. I know someone from there and she´s mentioning that it will soon be winter season over there. Well, as for the backyard, you may want to have a small greenhouse so that you could start planting seeds when the cold winter is over. There are small greenhouses that could be used if you want to start with seeds... Or maybe, get those grown up newbies that only needed to be transferred to soil. One by one, if you accumulate other plants, you´ll surely have plenty of greens.
I am currently in Argentina. At the moment, I am not sowing anything, but winter is not too frosty here, so maybe I can even plant things like spinach, and broccoli. But surely, as you say, at the end of winter I will begin to plan my spring better to make the most of the next warm season. Thanks for your kind answer!
That would be a bright idea about the plants like broccoli...haven´t tried planting it and I might try that one. The one thing that does not work with me is the zucchini. No matter how I cared for it, the flower buds simply fell off .. so I gave up planting it. I guess it needs more soil and space and does not like to be planted in pots... Lolols!
You have a green thumbs, a perfect gardener utilizing the plastic container . I love it.
The big containers are old about 20 years, they are the ones I brought along in the flat because they are lighter to carry.. The ones that were terra cotta were given away because they were heavy to carry or move around. Thanks for dropping-by.
You have an awesome garden @mers, and your balcony is a good spot for your berries to catch the sunlight and at the same time filtering the heat of the sun during high noon, there's one thing that catches my sight that herbs and lovely tulips!
Hive on🌱
Thank you @otom.... yeah, I am excted already about the blackberries... the raspberry branches have buds already! Yuhuu!
When you see them in progress that is so overwhelming🪴
Thank you for sharing this great content, You have been manually Upvoted by @skylinebuds
Thanks a ton for curating, appreciate the support.
Wow!! You outdid yourself, especially the fact that it is a balcony!!!! You have totally impressed me! Hi, @mers!
Hello @dswigle, Denise darl! Lol! hat was plenty of work and a backbreaking job, hahaha. I had to carry the soil here and there for the big pots. I recycled the old soil, inspected them for rosebugs and I found 11, yaks... I brought them to the nearby field. Thanks a ton and lovely to see you here.
I peek in from time to time. :)) I just finished redoing my Spring Garden and I feel like I'm recovering finally. It's so much work!
Good to see you!
Same here my dear... Lovely greetings form Vienna!
Container gardening is the best solution for small spaces. Will wait for your next post this time, with your harvest!
I agree, but I do not have a choice, hehehe. At any rate, let us see how they grow in the next days, will the frost come or the temps would rise? Big question! Thanks for dropping by. Enjoy your vacay and make plenty of pics!
It's spectacular! For a balcony, this is amazing. You must have excellent sun, and a huge green thumb.
Hello @owasco. Our balcony is facing south, so we have the sun from sunrise to sunset... Lol, about the green thumb, everyone has it, it only needs to be explored, at least I tried and became successful. Thanks for visiting.
VERY NICE!
I really like those containers with the built in water reservoir. Also, the hydrometer. that really is cool.
Thank you :-))
Wow, you've maximized the space in your balcony garden. They all look so healthy.
I hope the temps would continue to rise. I was reluctant the other day to finish-off the transfer of all plants outside. Weather is still cold now and we could have a surprise frost in the night.. am crossing still my fingers, we won´t have zero degrees, otherwise I can forget all the plants. Thanks for visiting Arni!
Greetings from the Philippines, sending some sunshine from our very hot climate right now 😊
Thanks for some sunshine, that would be great! I envy your weather, I can send some cold temps from here, we´ve got only 10°C and my plants are suffering. I have seen your string beans, very nice!
Lovely greetings from Vienna!
Wow! You're plants look very healthy. Which prove that you really take good care of them ate @mers. And oh I like to have that kind of tulip. It would be a nice feeling when you wake up and you see it in full bloom. You are well organized even if you only have a minimal space, still it didn't stop you from doing the things you love like gardening.
Hehehe... I love all my hobbies, if I would only have the time in the world, I could explore the farming side , plant all the organic crops I love. I had to adjust to the small balcony and this will not stop me from planting. And yeah, I love flowers very much wild ones or bought, they all look lovely and make my day...always! Thanks for dropping-by, appreciate it.
That looks great! I do container gardening, too, and love it.
I've also had issues with the weather this year; we have a frost warning tonight! I'm glad I've kept things indoors for now.
Good luck! Hope it keeps warm.
Thanks @wwwiebe... yes, the frost is the nr. 1 enemy of my lettuce. I got about 2 boxes of 12 each and I couldn´t plant them because of the minus degrees. I waited and waited and when it was warmer, I planted them outside, I was wrong, the frost came three days after and they were all frozen, bad luck!
OMG... this is an amazing Garden. you have the patience, perseverance and thoroughness to make them perfect!
Wonderfull!🌿
Thank you s much for the lovely comment. I hope they will flourish and all grow big... I´ll keep you posted when that day comes...
Way to go! @mers👩🌾
You've done an amazing job making use of every square inch of space available and the plants appear to appreciate your laborious work.
I hope your bountiful
cupscrops runneth over!🌱🥒☀️🌿🌻🥬🌱