Planting calendar

I started my balcony garden because I wanted to see if I can grow fresh vegetables, but I did make some rookie mistakes. After I got in trouble with some of the crops I actually started researching and I found a very nice calendar for planting.

As it can easily be seen, most of the things I planted very very late, so they aren't doing as well as they should.
So, I am planning better for the fall.
For example, I plan to try again in the fall with cold season crops - spinach, lettuce, radishes, rucola, carrots, cauliflower, peas and beets, because they seem to be doing better with lower temperatures.
I do have a batch of carrots that I moved inside and they seem to be doing well. I also planted a type that grows small round roots like a radish instead of the long one, I hope it's not too hot for them to grow. I'll move them inside just in case.
However, the tomatoes are doing absolutely great and so are the cucumbers and beans - today I actually noticed that my green beans are starting to show up!
So, if you are thinking about growing veggies, plan before you sow :))

Also, I'll add a list of useful links

http://www.tobuildagarden.com/
http://www.gardeningdata.co.uk/index.php

Trouble in the balcony garden

So I have a few plants that aren't doing well.
For example, the spinach and the lettuce just refuse to grow, so I kept reading and looking for reasons. Apparently, the main problem is that I planted them too late in the spring so now the plants are bolting instead of growing leaves.

Small leaves but tall plants for the spinach

Basically, because the temperatures are too high (it goes up to 30C already in the area) the plants are trying to grow flowers instead of leaves. A solution is to keep them in the shade but I was considering moving them inside the room and keeping the AC on during the hottest part of the day and see if it helps.
It really annoys me that I seem to be failing at the vegetables that are supposed to be the easiest to grow :(

The garlic seems to have the same problem - I planted it late, the greens went up to about 5-7 cm and now they stopped growing. I really hate that :( I don't want garlic cloves, i want green garlic, I love it, but it seems it's far too hot for it now.

Bottom line is - I will have to try to re-plant the spinach and lettuce later in the fall when it gets colder.

Another issue I mentioned before is that my radishes aren't creating bulbs, even if the leaves are big and healthy. I found an article  that mentions several reasons, out of which i think my problem is too much nitrogen in the soil. I have been using a fertilizer in the water for my plants but it's a multi-purpose one, so it might be that the radishes have too much of it. I am pretty sure it's not the bolting problem, even if it's getting to warm for them, because they don't seem to be flowering, just growing leaves.
I honestly have no clue how to fix this - I'll probably try to plant a new batch and not fertilise it at all. Maybe that will help.

Time for updates - part three - veggies and greens

The vegetables are a big part of my garden.

 so I decided to add some new seeds to the pots.

The two types of beans I have are doing  well,

Remember the tomato seeds? 

These are the tomatoes and the cucumbers now.

Spinach

Mint

Basil

I also got some cauliflowers and two larger tomato plants. In the top left you can see the garlic and onions. For some reason, the garlic stopped growing :(

Also, I planted a potato and it grew like a weed :)) I realised it was getting far too tall very late so now I have a potato that is almost a meter tall :)) On its left are the white radishes.

 

I planted some bettroot a few days ago

Time for updates - flowers

I got some geraniums as a present for my birthday :) That was a month ago and they are still flowering like crazy.

Also, the Rhododendron scared me when it started to lose the leaves, but new ones are sprouting. This happened to the Camelia plant also - it seems that the plants I get from the flower shops are forced to grow, so they feel the need to change clothes when they get to a new home :)

Dieffenbachia, Peace Lily, Maranta, Hosta, Dacca Palm and Cala Lily, plus some plants I don't know the name for :)

Coffee plant, Camelia and the Hydrangea in the background.

Two begonias and one Impatiens I just got.

The Jasmine is growing, but no flowers yet.

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 :(