And the Winners Are...

These little orange flowers came back from the dead after our heat wave
and have been blooming non-stop ever since!

I wished I knew the name of these flowers. I came close to pulling this plant earlier in July when it looked like it had been killed by the heat wave. But I decided to give it a chance, continued to water it and sprinkle and feed it the Better World plant food. As if to show me that yes, indeed, it was a survivor it came back with a vengeance, a proliferation of flowers it has put out ever since. So, it is the clear winner on my balcony. It has survived and thrived all the heat, the winds and aphids. If you know the name of it, please drop me a line and tell me.

A little close up of this gem.

And the snap dragons have continued to bloom.
I have NEVER had snaps last this long, ever.

I also show the snap dragons as the runners-up. They were assaulted by all the same things as the little orange flowers, but I did spray them with insecticidal soap and they survived that. Very impressed and I have to say that the Better World plant food has perhaps, been of assistance in this.

Soon I will be leaving this balcony behind. I will take some of the flower baskets with that survived. Much of the garden is done now. I only got one cucumber from my plants so that was disappointing. But most of the flowers did well, the lettuce was fantastic, the peas good, and the spinach and swiss chard also did well. 

I will post how things go on my new balcony, as soon as I get settled and see how the plants are adapting. It is a northern facing balcony but only 7 floors up this time and it looks to be more sheltered. We'll see how things go. 

I hope my blog has helped answer some questions or give you ideas you were looking for this year. It has been fun and I have enjoyed meeting new friends as a result. Thank you so much for joining me on my journey and I hope you have had a great season as well. It truly has been a beautiful summer.

Lettuce has Bolted, Peas are Drying Up, Pansies Dying But All is Not Lost!

I think it hit 38ºC today. It was one of the hottest days I have experienced here in Toronto yet. Some of the plants are hanging in, some not. A few days ago the aphids kicked up again and I had to totally pull up a basket of pansies as they were completely infested. Pansies just can't take this intense heat and couple that with the wind, I can't blame them. The Gerber daisy is a bit burnt as is the orange carnation but it really just happened today under this intense heat. I have confidence they will rebound.

But I can tell you who are the hardy ones. Coleus laughs at all this. The snap dragons, though not putting out new flowers are holding their own. Petunias haven't even noticed the heat. The swiss chard is doing very well as is the growing heirloom lettuce (even though I completely over planted the basket).

I will try to get some shots tomorrow and post them. It was really just too hot to be outside at all. I have been double watering the plants to make sure they don't dry out in this humid heat.

Before and After the Windstorm

Before.

looking north on my 19th floor west-facing balcony

and looking to the south from my 19th floor western facing balcony.

And after. The large coral begonia had been thrown and I quickly setted it right so in the picture it is upright but actually I found it on it's side. Begonias stems snap so easily I was sure it was injured, but luckily it was in pretty good shape considering.

Notice all the plants on the far southern wall are no longer there and things are strewn across the floor. Also note how some of the snap dragons are missing from the rail containers...

All the snap dragons snapped off by the wind!

Tiffie always has to inspect the situation.

See where the plant was snapped, right at the base. 

The rail container pansies were battered, but pansies are resilient and they are coming back. The sugar snap peas were somewhat disturbed. It is June 6th and they still aren't flowering so I  am not sure if they will produce or not. The snapdragons, like I said, seemed to take the most damage. The dahlias are amazing, still and the lilacs didn't notice a thing. Even the peonies seemed to hold their own in the north-eastern corner of the balcony.

So, there you have it. One heck of a wind and rain storm with some carnage but overall, not too bad. But there sure is a lot of dirt to sweep up!