May 13 - Planted some green beans and more florals!

It threatened to storm today and it was a summer day today - with the humidex it was 29ºC! Not much sunlight but very warm. I decided to plant some of the new flowers I picked up at one of the many corner grocery stores that have a selection of outdoor annuals. That's one of the things that I love about Toronto. God knows it's not the humidity!

It was too late to take any good pics but hopefully it won't storm tomorrow and I will be able to give some progress shots of the growing vegies and new florals!

Note: Pansies do not, I repeat, do NOT like the wind. They are fine in the pots that are on the ground but not the balcony containers that are hoisted onto the balcony guard rails.

How Does Your Balcony Garden Grow?

Here is the southern corner of my balcony garden. To the left from top left to bottom right:

-lettuce

-red radish

-peas (long container)

-spinach

-snap peas

You can see they are all up but the lettuce is barely visible. I would say it has been the slowest to grow and the spinach, regular peas and radish the fastest.

A close up of the radish. Last year hyancinths that I bought from Loblaws and just left outside after they were done are coming up?! I added more potting soil to the top of them. We'll see if they continue to grow. It was quite a surprise to see them bloom - I thought they were dead.

Close up of spinach.

So there they are. The clear winners so far are the spinach, red radish and regular peas. The snap peas are coming up but more slowly. The lettuce isn't too happy yet though. We'll see by next thursday how they are doing. 

What Happened to the First Wall Basket?

Well, I DID have this basket (with chives and green onions in it) up on the northern side of my balcony. Then we had a wind and rain storm.

I now have THIS basket in it's place. Let me tell you why.

Some time last week, in the evening, there was a huge wind and rain storm. Everything was water-soaked so no watering was needed that's for sure. So the next day, I was casually looking out the balcony window and a fluttering pigeon net caught my eye. It shouldn't have been fluttering. And where was the basket balcony container?! I ran out and peered over the edge of the wall. Nothing in site. That water-soaked basket was at least 25 lbs and it's a fairly large basket. I heard later that a man had died in Ontario during the wind storm. I quickly checked the story on line. No, no plant basket was involved, thank God! This has NEVER happened before. So keep in mind, that during these big wind storms that it might be best to take down the containers from the balcony walls. The winds were from 60 kms gusting to 100 kms. That basket went flying over the wall 19 floors. It will be one of life's little mysteries, where it ended up.

 Next time there is a wind warning for southern Ontario, I'll be checking to see how strong those winds are and the baskets may have to be taken down.

May 5 Temps are Up and Winds are Whipping

I am going to take some shots of the seedlings today so you can see their progress so far. Finally the temps are up, it's 16 above right now at 3:28 pm. The sun has come over and now is shining on the balcony. The winds are cold though, north at 31 km/hr and gusting at 46 km/hr. I am noting the winds this year to see just how windy it is when you are up, especially as high as I am. My balcony faces west.

FINALLY we have peas coming up!

Well the weather has been cold since I planted back on the 9th of April I believe. Today was the first really nice day we had (19ºC) and windy with partly sunny conditions. By 4:45 I went out to check on the containers and lo and behold, I saw three nubs of pea shoots coming up! I watered them with left over kale steaming water and the rest with regular water that was sitting outside against the wall so it warmed up a bit before I watered the rest of the containers.

So we'll see if anything else shows tomorrow but the winners, the first on the scene are the regular peas. They are organic and from Saskatchewan from an organic grower in the area close to Saskatoon.

I'll post if anything comes through tomorrow.

A good time to plant lettuce, spinach and peas!

Back on April 9th I planted three long basket containers (about a foot and a half to two feet long, 8 to 10 inches wide and about 8 inches deep) with a variety of leaf lettuce, snap and regular peas and spinach. Supposedly you can plant these vegetable varieties this time of year as they are cool loving plants and the cooler temps won't hurt them.

The above photo gives you some idea of the view and the balcony I work in. The long baskets and containers that are planted with peas, lettuce, spinach and radish are all lined up against the apartment outside wall on the left of the photo. I have wooden units (two old dresser drawers turned on their side so that I put the planters on top) and a large wooden, I thin it was an entertainment unit of some kind, that I put the basket containers on  to maximize their exposure to sunlight. Supposedly you need 6 hrs of sunlight a day so I am hoping to improve the odds of gardening success!

Today is the 14th and I do not see any growth as of yet. However my chives that are from last year and the year before are all coming up. Notice the little smidge of green in the lower left hand of the photo.
Here is another group of chives that I have in a hanging basket attached to the guard rail of the balcony. It seems to overwintered very well and it is also an organic plant. It is doing very well! On the guard rail it gets the most light out of any of the other places on the balcony. It seems to be able to handle the wicked winds that blow up here. So chives are VERY hardy and do quite well on a balcony!

That's it for now. I'll keep you posted!