New plants and new crops

I have to admit I am addicted to plant buying :)
Pretty soon I will run out of space in the sunny spots, but I am counting on the fact that some of the other things I planted will be done and I can re-use some of the containers/spots. So, when it comes to new stuff I planted, I have cucumbers (gherkin type because they make smaller cucumbers and are easier to grow in pots), a new type of PURPLE beans because they look funny and a horned African cucumber (that is supposed to taste strange) called Kiwano.

I also bought a Cranberry plant (Merisor), a hybrid between a raspberry and a strawberry called japanese Framberry and a  Honeyberry (Boaba de miere). 

 

I gave up on the spinach for now, I'll try again when it's colder. 

I am also very happy that my strawberries are having fruits - same with the beans. Now I realise that I actually don't like green beans at all :)) but it's so nice that they are growing. 

 

My tomatoes and my cucumbers are also doing very well, even if for the last few days it has been cold and raining. The tomatoes are flowering :)

 

Time for updates - part one - berries

This post will have lots of pictures :) You can click them to see the larger pic.

Huge raspberry plant - no flowers yet unfortunately. To the left there is a rose and in the other black container there is a Josta plant that refuses to grow :(

The Goji plant is doing ok, I have a feeling I have to move it to a bigger pot.

My strawberries are growing :D

I have about 10 strawberries plants right now and most are flowering, except the two i got from gradma, those are just multiplying.

This is the blueberry - it's not dead, it has a few leaves, but it looks kind of sad :(

Berries, berries, berries!

If there is one fruit I love, it's strawberries. I am able to eat tons and never get enough!
So I tried to grow them in pots a year ago, but unfortunately I got some bad soil with aphids from somewhere and all my plants died.
So I decided to try again.

I got two plants on Easter from my grandmother's garden and added three more climbing strawberries from Sieberz . I keep them in hanging pots on the balcony window.

They seem to be doing ok, but the ones I bought seem to be growing very slowly. The sturdy type from my garden started expanding already, the others just sprouted a few more small leaves.

I even invested in some special fertilizer for them from Leroy Merlin (it was about 5 euros/500g).

So far, they don't seem to want to bloom, but I'm hopeful :)

I also bought from Sieberz a raspberry plant (after buying a blackberry and a raspberry plant from Praktiker that refused to sprout leaves).

It's doing great, even if I didn't move it from its pot (it looked like the soil was a special blend and it was deep enough).

It's supposed to be able to bear fruit in a year - so I will probably have to move it in another bigger pot later in the year.

The main problem with it is that it needs a lot of sun, so I have to be careful where I place it, since only a corner of my balcony gets sun for a longer period.

I recently bought a couple of other berrie bushes from Praktiker - mostly because they managed to sprout leaves even if they were wrapped and packages and on the shelf in the store. I figured if they can grow in those conditions, my balcony won't be a problem :))

I added the packages so you can see the species (since the plants are dismal at this stage :p). The one on the left is a Jostaberry (a cross between black currant/coacaz and gooseberry/agris) and the one on the right is Citria (white blackberry).

I had the same problem with these as I did with the trees - they have very deep roots so I needed deep cheap pots - so I used plastic garbage cans.

Let's hope they can manage without special soil!

Oh, almost forgot, I also have a Goji plant - my uncle has a passion for the fruits and he planted a big bush in my grandmother's garden, so I took a cutting and planted it in a pot. It was attached by afids and almost died, but I managed to revive it and it's going strong.

I've had it for almost three months so far, but since it was traumatised earlier this year I don't expect it to bear fruit this year.

I also took a cutting from a fig bush we have and I'm trying to see if it will root, because Pinterest says that you can grow figs in a pot also.

But it's only been a month so I'll give it more time before I post pictures (currently it's in a plastic bottle with some water and some soil).

Let's get to actual flowers!