Red Tomatoes!

I am finally starting to see some red tomatoes!  It was a long time in the making folks.  My Bush Early Girl tomato plant has grown a bit larger than advertised so I ended up buying a larger container.  I wasn't sure if she would survive the transplanting process, but I knew I had to try.  She survived and is doing great!  I still had to end up tying my homemade bamboo tomato cage to keep it from leaning though.  But instead of tying it to the BBQ I tied it to the balcony railing which is much more convenient for BBQing.  There are so many tomatoes which makes it a surprisingly heavy plant.  I just noticed today that it is also leaning on the glass of the railing as well, but that can't be helped.  I'm just hoping that they don't all ripen at once.

I think I am going to make some salsa  I found a recepe for Fresh Salsa that sounds absolutely delicious!  I just have to wait for the tomatoes now :)

Tomato and Aphid Update

I have tomatoes and lots of them.  My tomato plant is growing larger than it said it would grow and the plant is getting top heavy with all of those tomatoes.  I am now finding that the planter I used is too small.  Next year I will definitely buy a larger pot.  I feel like if I transplanted it now I would damage it. 

When I came home from the weekend, one of the larger branches was broken and hanging there and the rest of the plant was falling to the side.  I had to tie the broken branch to the plant itself and tie my homemade tomato cage to my BBQ so keep it from falling over.  I hope this does the trick and it doesn't grow anymore.. Well besides delicious tomatoes!

Aphid Update:  The good news is that I found something that works on aphids!  The bad news is that I burnt the leaves on my plants..  The home remedies really didn't do much of anything and it seemed like there were more aphids after two days after the application.  This Insecticidal Soap worked immediately.  I made the mistake of using it in the morning of a hot day though.

There is a lot of new growth on the bottom but most of the leaves on the trellis are burnt.  I took a few off.  Should I take them all off and hope for new growth?  There are aphids on the healthier looking sections of the plant but not as many as before.  I'm scared to spray them again until they look stronger.

Some of the vines have made it to the top of the trellis!  I haven't seen any flowers yet, but I am hoping that more leaves fill it out.  Some of the vines seemed to have stopped growing.  I hope I didn't kill them with the Insecticidal Soap. 

Attack of the Aphids

The other day I noticed these tiny, green bugs on my Morning Glory and Moonflower plants.  I feel like I noticed them too late because there seem to be thousands.  Damn then being the exact same colour as the plants! 

So far I'm not seeing any damage being done, but I thought that I had to do something about it.  I found a recepe on eHow and decided to try it out.  Basically it is liquid soap, vegetable oil, and water mixed together in a spray bottle.  Then you spray every inch of the plant including the back of the leaves.  So far I have only used one application.  The next day there seemed to be less aphids, but today is two days later and they are all back..  It says to apply it every 10 days, but I am going to apply it again today.  Let me know if you have any proven home solutions of your own.  Wish me luck!



Taking the Good with the Bad

I'll start by talking about the good, my Bush Early Girl tomato plant.  Isn't she beautiful?  Unfortunately, I have been extremely busy lately and forgot to water her for 2 days and I came home yesterday to her wilting.  BUT today she is looking a lot better and I noticed something amazing..

 

The first little tiniest hint of a tomato!  I'm not sure if you can see it from the pictures because I just use my blackberry for the pictures on this blog, but it's there!  There are two actually, both on the same branch.

So I'm pretty excited about that.  I really have to remember to come out everyday to check if it needs water.  It even poured out yesterday, but I guess it still didn't get enough rain.

Now we'll start with the bad.  I've been noticing on my pallet garden that the Purple Crystal Alyssum, have been losing the flowers.  This I am finding this odd because the Snow Crystal Alyssums are doing fine, and so is the Gypsy Deep Rose Gypsophilia.  It isn't just becaue one side is getting more sun than the other side, it is happening throughout the pallet.  Take a look:

I'm not sure if you can see it from this picture, but I get more sun on the left side.  The top makes sense to me because the white flowers are doing great getting more sun than the purple.  But if you look below the Gypsophilia, you can't even see the purple flowers, just the white ones.  Good to know for next season I suppose.  Also the Wave Petunias are looking a little ratty.  We do get a lot of wind up here so it is probably a combination of that and less than desirable sun.

The Strawberry plants weren't looking so well last week, but they are looking healthier this week.  Less leaves seem to be getting burnt from the heat up here.  The Panzies are trying to make a comeback.  They were wilting pretty bad yesterday.  I gave them a big drink and some seem to be starting to stand again, but I also have another problem.  There is sticky stuff on them.  This substance is also on my owl..  Then I found this:

..a cigerette butt, gross!  I'm guessing we have some partiers above us.  Which is fine as long as they don't pour their drinks and throw their butts off of the balcony.  I called the landlord to make sure they get a friendly reminder.  Last year we had a problem above us and ended up finding butts, a pizza box, and raw hamburger on our balcony one time.  Needless to say I wasn't impressed.

Pallet Watering Problem Update

In a previous post I had mentioned that when I water my Pallet Garden the water runs down to the neighbour's balconies.  This is not good.  The last thing I want is for them to complain to the landlord and them try to stop me from gardening up here.  My Uncle mentioned using a tray.  I tried using the little greenhouse that I started the Morning Glory & Moonflower seedlings in.  I did my watering at night again, just in case.  While it caught most of the water, some still trickled down below.  So back to the drawing board..

The Wave Petunias are filling out nicely on the top.  They are getting lots of water.  I was afraid that it wasn't getting enough sun in the corning but they seem to be doing just fine.  The very bottom layer of flowers doesn't seem to be doing so well.  The more bushy flowers above it are hanging down over them and blocking the sun, especially on the left side.

My vines seem to be liking their new home!  Most of the Morning Glorys have attached themselves to the trellis.  I even gave one of the plants a little help with some gardening twine in hopes that it will reach the far side of the trellis.  The Moonflowers don't seem to be doing much of anything.

The rest of the gang seem to be doing great.  I read that turning the pots every week (or a little each time you water them) helps make sure they are getting enough sun everywhere they need it.  The Panzies sure like this!  The tomato plant is looking good too.

I've encounterd my first few Strawberry runners.  At first I wasn't sure what they were so I was hesitant to pinch them off.  If I had more room on the balcony I might let them grow and start new plants, but space is precious up here.  I read that pinching them off will put more energy into the root system and the fruit when it comes.  The picture is just a small one, but I've already pinched off 2 longer runners.  I can't wait to get some flowers on my Strawberry plant and watch them turn into fruit!

First Tomato Buds!

My Bush Early Girl tomato plant seems to be doing well.  I noticed her first buds today!  From what I've read I think I'll have to use a Q-Tip to pollinate it myself.  Unless I start seeing some bees around.  I'm not sure they will fly up seven stories just to pollinate my plants though.  It would be nice, but I just so happened to be terrified of bees!  Well wasps and hornets mostly.  Flying things that sting.

The Joys of Neighbours

The Pallet Garden is filling out nicely!  But I have encountered a problem..  It drinks a lot of water and the access runs down the front and off of the balcony.  It turns out that people live below me, imagine that!  I wasn't thinking and attempted to water it after work and got yelled at.  With all of my other plants I have trays under them to catch the excess water, but with the pallet I have no way of doing that.  Because it is vertical I actually have to let water run down the front to soak into the soil.  Now I am kind of wishing I had set up some sort of watering system with pipes.  Too late now though!  For now I am just going to stick to watering at night or early in the morning.  Any ideas on how to make some kind of tray for under the pallet that isn't going to take away from the look of it would be greatly appreciated.

The Morning Glory vines are already starting to take to the trellis!  I came home from work and noticed that two of the plants had attached themselves and another two look like they are getting close.  I tried to give one a nudge in the right direction but it wasn't having that.  I wonder how long it will take to cover the trellis? 

From Humble Beginnings..

Have you been wondering about those Morning Glory and Moonflower seedlings I started a month ago?  Well they were staying at my parents place while I was on vacation, but now they're back and it's time to plant!

I bought a planter at Canadian Tire a few weeks ago that has a drainage hole in the bottom for about $10.  I stole some gravel from my parents driveway and some larger rocks from outside the doors of my apartment building so I wouldn't have to use as much soil.

It took me a while to figure out what I wanted for a trellis.  After checking the package on my seeds I realized that I would need something taller than the planter really allowed for.  The Morning Glories grow to 12 feet and the Moon Flowers grow to 10 feet tall.  I checked out my options at Farmer Clem's, Canadian Tire, and Home Depot, but they didn't really have what I was looking for.  I almost settled for a little one at Canadian Tire when my mother suggested checking out the Walmart at the Bedford Commons.  I totally forgot about that place!  I've only been there once before, but I'm definitely going back to check out the other stores.

I found the tallest trellis I could find and it's beautiful to boot!  It has cute little birds and leaves on it.  The ones at Canadian Tire that were this size were $49 each and much thicker.  The ones I got were $23 each and are about 7 feet tall (6 feet if the pegs were going into the ground).  I bought two so that I could put make the plants grow up the corner of the balcony.  I fastened them together in three places with some wire and it seems to be heavy enough that the wind won't bother it.  I'll give you an update on that later.

I tried to plant the seedlings so that most of them were along the edges closest to the trellis.  There just wasn't room to plant all of them that way.  But I guess I'll be training them to find the trellis when they are tall enough.  I've never done this before so it should be interesting!  The planter looks so tiny against the trellis!  Maybe next year I'll get a larger planter.

Comet White Argyranthemum

When I was out buying the Petunias for the top of my pallet, I saw the Comet White Argyranthemum and thought it would look nice in the ceramic pot that was left by my elevator a few months ago.  I love when people do that.  It's kind of like a trading post.  I think the flower looks just like a Daisy.

It was the first really nice, sunny day in a long time.  I am enjoying the sun BBQing on the balcony and enjoying the fruits of my labour :)

Flowers for the Top

Nathan and I had talked about plants for the top and we decided a dark pink flower would look nice.  My mom mentioned Wave Petunias to me a couple of times so I thought I would try to find them and see what they look like.  She also suggested checking out Farmer Clem's on the Bedford highway.  I've never been in there before and had completely forgotten it even existed.  I was on my way to my parents place for the weekend for my dad's birthday and decided to check it out on the way.  That place is amazing!  I didn't even have time to go through the whole thing.  I found what I thought was Wave Pink Petunias, but when I got home I realized that I grabbed Tidal Purple, I am assuming they are still in the Wave Petunia family because they were in the same section for the same price.  I love the vibrant colour.  I made a detour back to my apartment to plant my new finds.

After I got them on the balcony I wasn't so sure about the colour though, maybe I should have grabbed the lighter Petunias.  Oh well!  I only bought two plants because they are supposed to be aggressive and should spread to the rest of the planter.  One was notibly larger than the other so I put that one on the slightly shadier side hoping the smaller plant will catch up.  Time will tell.

I also bought a stronger rope for tying the planter to the railing and door hinge.  It is a marine-type rope that is supposed to be water and rot resistant.  Let's hope it stands up to the wind.

Pallet Garden is Vertical!

It's been about two weeks since I planted my Pallet Garden so I thought I would see if I could raise it on my own.  When I lifted it up a bit I noticed that the soil did not bulge out of the back so I thought that the roots must have grown enough to hold the soil.  I put on my gardening gloves and set to work.  That thing is heavy!  I was able to get it vertical and very little soil came out, just a few crumbs.  Then I had to slowly inch it to the wall.  I think it looks great!  I ended up tying it to the railing and a hinge in the door just in case the wind picked up.  I'm thinking I'll need stronger rope though because I just used gardening twine that I bought at the dollar store.  Now I just need to figure out what I want on top.  I think some kind of greenery would be nice, but Nathan things flowers would look better.  Decisions..

Container Garden Update

I just got back from vacation and my roomate has been watering my plants for me.  Everything looks good!  Our balcony seems to be hot and windy so I have to check the plants daily.  Is it possible that the wind dries out the plants too?  When it is sunny, we get direct sun for most of the afternoon.

 The Bush Early Girl tomato plant seems to be coming along nicely.  The stem is thickening up and it started getting "suckers," and the top looks like there are tiny buds.  I read that because it is a determinate variety that I do not need to pinch the suckers off or the first buds.  It also said that I would not need to stake it, but I thought that since it gets pretty windy up there I would put in a tepee stake in case it needs help later.

The strawberry plants are looking okay, but a few of the leaves on the bottom openings have some red on the edges.  Maybe they are getting burnt from the heat.  There was a blossom before I went on vacation, but I pinched it off because I read it would be better for it to put the energy into estabilishing a better root system before putting it's energy into producing fruit.  New shoots are starting though!

I was looking for either a cute little owl or a laughing budda as a gardian for the garden.  At first I have having no luck.  I looked in all of my usual stores.  Then I found this owl in a dollar store in New Minas.  I think he's just perfect for the job :)

Pallet Garden Project

Ok, so I was thinking that this Pallet Garden project was going to be an inexpensive way to have more flowers on my balcony.  I love the idea of a virtical garden!  But I was surprised on how much it actually ended up costing.  My mother and I went to Blomidon Nurseries in the valley and they had exactly what I was looking for!  I ended up getting Purple and Snow Crystal Alyssum, and the bushy one with tiny pink flowers is Gypsy Deep Rose Gypsophila.  When the clerk rang it in it ended up being almost $100.  I thought that's ok it only calls for two bags of potting mix, which I already have, and plants for the top. 

It ended up taking three days to get it started.  One day was was stapling the landscaping fabric on the back of the pallet.  The second day was planting most of the pallet (I ran out of soil, bought two more bags and ran out again).  The third day was finishing the top 2 rows.  So far I have used five bags of soil which can be pretty pricy, but I think it looks great so far. 

Now I just have to wait for the roots to take so that I can put it against the wall behind my balcony door.  It seems to be pretty heavy though, probably due to the extra soil.  I am a bit nervous about when I have to put it up that either the soil will pour out of the front, or that it will be so heavy that the staples will come out of the landscaping fabric.  I hope it doesn't end up being a big mess!

Finally Some Green!

I was a bit nervous about this step, but once I made a few decisions (and a few trips to Walmart) things began to come together.  I wanted flowers, but from reading Fern Richardson's blog, Life on the Balcony, I realized that I might be able to grow some edibles too!  I love both strawberries and tomatoes so I thought I would start there and see what I could find.

Progress on my seedlings: Morning Glory (left) and Moonflower (right)

My first trip was to Walmart where I found a strawberry pot, strawberry plants, small Roma Tomato plants, some panzies, and cute ceramic pot.  They have so much gardening stuff!  They also have something called Fire Pots which I might look into later on.  At Canadian Tire I found large bags of Miracle-Gro Potting Mix on sale for $4.99 so I bought two of thoses, and a large plastic pot for my tomato plant.  I actually ended up finding a Bush Early Girl Tomato plant at Sobey's that was more established.  Instead of taking the Roma Tomato plants back for the $3, I decided to give them to my mother.

I got everything home and went to work.  First I put the Panzies in their cute little pot, then came the strawberry plant.  This took a bit more time.  The instructions said there were 10 plants in it and I would have to soak the roots in warm water to untangle them.  This took some time, but it was actually kinda fun!  I didn't get the 10 plants as promised, but I was able to get 8 out of it.  I was hoping for at least nine because I read that strawberry plants do well in groups of three and I wanted 1 plant for each opening of the strawberry pot and three on top.  I had to settle for two on top.

Left to right: strawberries, panzies, tomato

Next was the tomato plant.  I was really glad that I was able to find the determinate hybrid Bush Early Girl because I don't have a lot of space on my balcony and I would be growing it in a small container.  From what I've read it would only grow to around three feet tall and produce medium sized tomatoes.  I've read that tomato plants need well-drained soil and realized that the plastic pot that I bought did not have drainage holes.  I ended up making my own drainage holes with a nail and hammer.  I also planted it up to the first branch because I read that doing this would force the tomato plant to create a better root system.

My balcony thus far <3

I am also very excited to say that I found a pallet!  On my first post I had posted a Pallet Garden that was made by Fern Richardson.  I thought I would try it if I happened upon a pallet, then it happened.  On my way up to work on the 13th floor someone got off on the 6th floor and I saw two just outside of the elevator.  I continued up to work, dropped off my lunch, and went back down.  I asked someone if I could take one and they said as long as I can carry it I could have it :)

Some Assembly Required..

I've been busy this week.  I was going to put the deck box together in my apartment.  The person at Canadian Tire told me that it would be simple, pre-drilled holes and an Allan Key.  This was definitely not the case.  I dumped everything out in front of me and then looked at the instruction.  I would need a drill, exterior caulking, and wood glue, all of which I did not have.  So I packed everything up and took it down to my parents place in Brooklyn over the weekend. 

It suggested treating/staining the wood before assembly so that's what I did.  The staining took the longest because I wanted to make sure the stain got into all of the cracks and notches.  With the help of my sister, we used two coats so that pretty much killed our Saturday.  On Sunday, everything was ready for assembly.  That part actually didn't take very long and my mother helped me hold everything together.  Here is the finished product:

I think it turned out pretty great!  I had to get my sister to help me carry it up to my apartment.  It wasn't very heavy, just awkward.  I'm just glad it fit into the car :)

This week I was also on the hunt for cushions.  I figured out online that for the top of the deck box I wanted 24" x 24" floor cushions.  From what I was seeing online it seemed like they were going to be expensive.  On a whim, I went to Superstore and found everything I needed at a decent price!  I hate how they don't everything on their website.  The floor cushions were only $19 each as opposed to the $50 cushions I was seeing online, score!  I found matching pillows there too.  I ended up taking over an isle to set up different colours and patterns to see which ones looked best.  I even found replacement cushions for my bistro set!

I started some Morning Glory and Moonflower seeds that I will be putting in the planter beside the deck box.  I've decided that I will be putting the planter on the wall side of the balcony instead of the railing side due to the high winds we get, and it just seems to fit better this way with the bistro set.

Balcony Design Idea

Taking the three images I've found from my last post, I believe I have a basic layout in my head of how this is going to look.  The idea is to have a bench-like seat with comfortable cushions and pillows on one end of the balcony (like the first image in my last post).  Beside the bench I would like to grow some type of ivy or climbing plant on the railing side of the bench so that it would create some shade and maybe hang over the bench a bit (similar to the second image in my last post).  I also have an old bistro set to go against the wall, and a BBQ for somewhere near the door, probably across from it on the railing side. 

For the bench I was thinking of something that I could store the cushions in when the weather isn't so nice.  Then my mom came up with the idea of a deck box!  I would need something that is sturdy enough to sit on though so those plastic ones would just not do.  Then we found a wooden one on sale at Canadian Tire for $99!

I measured my balcony and it will fit perfectly with room to spare for the planter on the side of it so I bought it last night!  It needs to be assembled and painted with a wood protectant, but I figure this will give me something to do and I can pick out a colour of stain I would like.  I'm thinking something on the darker side.  Hopefully I'll be able to get this baby put together this week.