When in spirng we moved into this flat which includes a BALCONY people – including me – asumed that by now said balcony would be some sort of impassable … jungle, looking something like this one.
The truth is … I’ve been very restrictive with myself and YES you can still stand on the balcony, YES there are three (!) chairs on it and one table, although it’s not usable because of plants standing on it. I like my semi-jungle and I have great plans for it.
For now I just want to show you some pictures of my little urban garden.
The table 🙂
One of my two ‚Balkonkasten‘, also called the salad bar. There’s basil, rocket salad, lettuce, buck’s horn plantain, coriander, more lettuce and garlic …
The pots contain more basil (it’s cuban bush basil), rose scented geranium (pelagonium graveolens) and lemon cented geranium (pelagonium citronellum)
Basil and lattuce.
The coriander is – against all my efforts to stop him – desperatly trying to bloom.
On the ground there is
laurel
bell shaped chili pepper (Capsicum baccatum ‚Glockenpaprika‘)
coctail tomato and celery (not in the picture)
courgette
In the other corner:
runner beans (visual-cover-to-be) and the flower pot the sparrows sowed
(originally there was some oregano in it. When I put the pot onto the balcony in early spring it stood right under the bird house. Some day the sparrows hijaked the house, looted it and accidentially sowed some sunflowers and cereals … last year they planted the cereals into the roof gutter – my landlady was not amused!)
The second ‚Balkonkasten‘ containing parsley, indian cress, more lattuce, some herb I don’t know, but which tastes great, thyme rattail radish (raphanus caudatus) and some forgotten radishes (blooming right now)
Also you can see a bottle containing my efforts in trying to make nettle fertilizer.
thyme and basil
parsley and lettuce
The blooming rattail radish (you eat the young seed vessels)
Not in the pictures are a big pot of oregano, wild basil (Ocimum species ‚Cresto‘), more trying-to-bloom-coriander and the stuff I collect for my parents
What do you think!?! I like going out there and collenct my food (I don’t like having to water them every day … )
I don’t think there will be much more in 2012, no worm compost, no mushrooms, no lettuce tree, no hanging cucumbers, no …
… I’m pretty jealous.
For one thing, I always manage to kill my coriander. Even though everybody tells me it’s a weed and you’ll never get rid of it.
But that’s not the issue now anyway since I’m not at home often enough to keep any plants on my huuuuuuge balcony. Every day I walk past planted balconies I catch myself dreaming of growing the herbs for moretum (did you say you also have garlic? So impressed!). And Chili Peppers, of course. And tomatoes. And courgette (how did you manage not to eat the flowers?). No salad though. And certainly no sunflowers, even though I like the idea of having the sparrows do your gardening.
Another reason to get on with my thesis and get a less nomadic life.
To put it short: I like your garden. And the view, btw.
REPLY:
hehe 🙂
well, I brought home one hot peper yesterday …
What are the odds that you will add at least one of the things you list at the end? I’d say pretty high 😀 I love it the way it is right now though, as good balance of a little bit of everything but not so much that you can’t enjoy it any more.