Updates on my veggies and strawberries

First, let's see how the old ones are doing.

The only bad thing about the strawberries is that the fruit ripe one at a time :)

We have tomatoes! Some (Venus) are a little bigger, but the cherry tomatoes are also alive and well.

Also, the cucumber is blooming like crazy but so far only 2 female flowers. I am hand-pollinating them to make sure i get cucumbers.
I also planted some new gherkin seedlings, but those are small yet.

Mini-cauliflower

Red bell pepper

Potato in a bucket

Eggplant flowering

Hot peppers - Habanero Fatalii

I really have trouble arranging pictures in the right spot in this blog :D
As you can see, summer is in full swing and I just LOVE everything!


And because I have an addiction to online shopping, of course I bought new plants - flowers this time. I will make another port about those.

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 :(

New seedlings planted and a general picture

I planted new batches of cilantro, dill, lettuce, carrots and seeds for cherry tomatoes and chilly peppers.

There are also new batches of basil planted and I moved the strawberries and the radishes inside, because it's getting too hot for them outside and they started wilting.

I also bought a celery root with leaves because I was unable to make it grow from seed (apparently it takes forever and I don't have the patience for it).

My balcony is becoming very crowded on the sides, so I will have to step up with the vertical plans. I need to go to a home improvement store to buy some chains, new pots and other things.

Overall, I'm very happy with the way it's coming around and pretty soon I will start harvesting stuff.


So here is a cure picture with the cat included :D

I also managed to buy some oregano from Mega Image and I planted the cuttings - surprisingly, they seem to be doing very well. This is my "herb garden" - Mint, oregano, basil, lovage, dill, parsley and celery. The rosemary is on the windowsill behind it.

I also bought a yellow begonia and planted it in a bigger pot.

That's about it for now :)

New plants and seedlings

Ok, so I started the seedlings for the cherry tomato two days ago (I'll post a detailed update once they sprout) and went shopping for new plants.

I got a very colorful leafy plant that is supposed to do well in the shade - it's called Maranta (or Prayer plant) because in the evening it fold the leaves as in prayer).

It looks unusual and I like it! 

But the one that thrills me the most is the Camelia! I absolutely love this plant and I sure hope I can get this one to flower (I bought one with lots of  flower buds).

Like I mentioned, I also ordered a few more strawberries from Gradinamax.ro (these are called Ostara) and I planted them outside. I wasn't impressed by the fact that they were basically roots, but it seems that's the way they are stored during the year. Let's hope they will like the weather and that they will grow.

Other than that, I started working on a vertical garden idea but I still have some way to go until I can post pictures (it involves a trellis and a window and some ribbons).

Maybe over the weekend I can finish it so that next week I can post pictures.
Oh, I forgot to mention, I also planted Fresia bulbs (blue and pink) and I plan to plant some ginger tonight (I put it in water for the time being).

Wish me luck!

Quick updates

While I'm waiting for another package of flowers and plants to arrive, I was checking out the plants and I have some good news:

Dianthus is blooming nicely - I placed it on the windowsill outside my balcony. I was worried because we had a few cloudy days, but they seem to be doing fine.

Same with the onions and the garlic I planted - they sprouted and they look really good. I am looking forward to use green onions that I grew :)
They will probably be good to eat in a week or so.

But the greatest thing is that my strawberries are flowering :)
Specifically, the climbing strawberries I bought from Sieberz all have flowers now.  I am worried because they didn't grow as many leaves as I expected - the type I bought are supposed to grow bigger. I am pretty sure I'm supposed to pinch the flowers to make the plant grow, but I don't have the heart to do it. I'll just let me do whatever they want.

The ones I brought from back home don't seem to plan on flowering, but they are multiplying - growing offshoots that I cut and planted in separate pots. Pretty soon I'll have a lot of strawberries - I just ordered 5 more plants from Gradinamax.ro :p

I also ordered Fresia bulbs, a dwarf blackberry plant and a spicy pepper. 

I hope this weekend I will be able to work on setting up some space for others pots, I'm running out of horizontal space so I plan on setting up a vertical stand for the strawberries.

I'll post updates once I have them :)

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!