Another perspective

I've been quite busy for the last few days and I haven't had the time to do all the gardening chores I intended to. However, I sprayed all of my balcony plants with Neem oil what should take care of my aphids&spider mites problem for now.

I should go to sleep right now, because tomorrow I have to get up early, take care of my urban garden and give some love and nutrients to my plants. There's a lot of stuff going one on my balcony garden, but I'm still quite busy with some other stuff I'm doing. I'm also without a camera which would enable me to record the present state of my Urban Grow plants!!! Nevertheless, here are some out of date photographs of my balcony garden flowers. You could have already seen those Pelargonium flowers on my gardening blog, but this time I offer you another perspective!

And here I am!

Balcony Flowers

As I said earlier, a lot of my balcony plants are in flowering stage. I'm having some problems trying to Google the names of all the plants in English, but that's mostly because I know them by names used in Croatia(by local people). However, I'll be gradually posting all of their photos and I would appreciate if you would help me discover their English names.
For now, I'm going to make my Mum happy by posting some pictures of her Pelargonium flowers!

Balcony Flowers(Pelargonium)

Still green

My balcony garden is in flowering stage and there are veggie flowers and baby veggies popping all around. Almost everyday I get a close look at my tomatoes, but still they are all green.

Although my two Saint Pierre Tomatoes aren't producing any fruit, that isn't my main concern right now. In one of my previous posts, I mentioned that I've planted too many plants in one plant box/container. Even then, I knew that the plants wouldn't have enough root space, but at that time it was the only way for me to grow them. I have a habit of sowing to many seeds and therefore I keep ending up with more seedlings than I can handle. Usually I share most of them, so it's a good thing in the end! Like the overcrowding issue isn't enough, the other day I realized that my veggies are under aphid and spider mite attack. Some leaves were severely damaged so I had to cut them off. I have to take care of that problem as soon as I can, because these pests can really suck out the life out of a plant. Neem Oil works pretty good with such problems and is totally organic. More on Neem oil, soon!

For now, take a look at the progress my baby veggies are making.

Saint Pierre Tomato





Cherry Tomatoes





Pepper

Balcony Garden Jungle

I just realized that I've never mentioned that apart from cherry tomatoes and pepper, I also grow regular size tomatoes. There are hundreds of tomato varieties from which you can choose.

The variety I grow on my balcony garden is named Saint Pierre. The seed package I bought offered little information on the plant characteristics, but it's allegedly a late strain. Currently, there are three Saint Pierre tomatoes on my balcony and all of them are in flowering stage. However, only one of them is producing fruit. The other two plants are a lot bigger and producing a lot of flowers, but they keep falling off and there's no sign of fruit yet. That worries me a lot and I was even thinking of cutting them down, but I'll give them a few more weeks. Still, they are growing like crazy and that gives me some hope. My balcony garden is starting to look like a real urban jungle!

Urban Grow Jungle

What a smell

As I was sitting in my kitchen, I noticed a beautiful natural aroma that reminded me of my childhood. It didn't come from my balcony garden, but it was here to stay.

It was a puzzle for me that my mother helped me solve as soon as she came home. This beautiful fragrance occupied my whole apartment for a few weeks. It was so nice to wake up with all those plant odors and my city apartment had a scent of woods. It might sound strange, but it's all thanks to one flowering tree, Tilia.

A view from my balcony(Tilia)



I have luck that there still is some plant life in the area I live, as the park in front of the building I live in can show. Nothing special, a lawn, few benches and some trees. Fortunately enough, some of those trees are pretty big so they help a lot, especially in hot summer days like this one is. Tilia, linden, lime, basswood or how ever you call it is a specie of large trees. This one has 25 meters approximately. Like every other plant is a gift of nature used for many purposes, so is Tilia! I love Tilia honey and tea!

One and only

There are a lot of plants growing in my garden and every other day nature takes care to make my balcony a great living space. A few days ago my one and only garden rose rewarded us with a beautiful flower.

Pinching basil plants

Basil can be easily grown, whether from seed or cuttings, indoors or outdoors. This beautiful herb just keeps on rewarding you and you´ll be glad that you have found a place for it in your own home garden. However, like every other plant, Basil requires certain growing environment, i.e. suitable conditions and in this case that primarily means enough warmth and light.

Pinching or pruning is a very important feature of basil growing and a necessary practice, especially if you want to make the most of your garden. Once your small basil plants have grown and established a quality root system, it´s time for pinching! You have to pinch the top of the plant to promote branching and prevent early flowering. Eventually, flowers will start to grow and again you have to cut those off! By doing so, you are delaying flowering and channeling the energy of the plant from flower production into leaf production. However, it is smart to let your basil flower eventually, because it will reward you with fresh seeds for the next season. Great leaf production is what we are after an interestingly enough, Basil reacts very well when we clip some of those(not all) leaves off and again it produces more and more.
Grow your own Basil and you´re about to have a great growing experience and a constant supply of your own fresh herb! Here are a few photographs that should help you visualize how to pinch a flower off your basil plant! It´s very simple, take a look!

Pinching flowers off my basil plant

Flowers on a balcony

As you have been able to see from my previous posts, it´s possible to grow almost anything right in your own urban home garden. You can live your usual city life and still experience all the pleasures and joys of gardening. It does not require a lot from you, yet as things are going in the world, I think it is becoming a highly important issue which needs to be brought to attention. More on that some other time!

Right now, I want to share some photographs of flowers from my balcony garden. It´s my mother´s area and I´m not sure of all the names, so I´ll get back on those in future posts.

Flowers from my balcony garden

What´s flowering?

It´s getting a little bit crowded, but I have just done some pruning and everything looks great. Pruning was necessary to increase the airflow and allow the light to penetrate lower branches and smaller plants. My tomatoes just keep getting bigger and bigger, so I´ll have to do some thinking before I decide what kind of support I´ll use. It is really starting to look like a jungle in here, a real urban jungle high up in the sky!!! Balcony garden creates a whole new dimension in your flat and a great aromatic extension of your living space. Right now, I can´t imagine cooking without my fresh homegrown herbs. I hope soon, I´ll be able to say the same for my veggies.

Take a quick look at my flowering tomato plant

Mission accomplished

My mother is a passionate plant grower(hmm, what a coincidence) and she wanted to see her flowers on my blog.
No problem mum!!!

Here it goes! It's pelargonium!