A Peony Miracle!

Here she is, one of two of my peony miracle blooms!

I think I bought this peony two years ago and it was already in bloom. I took it home and was in Heaven! When that bloom was done that was it. The next year the plant did not bloom at all. Buds came, dried up and then fell off. I went back to the garden centre where I bought it and was told that perhaps ants were involved, in that, ants might have a symbiotic relationship with the plant and the buds might need them to open into full bloom. I wondered how I could cajole ants up 19 floors to scurry over my peony plant. Oh well, I thought I would just have wonderful green plants without blooms and so be it. Then I fed them with what is proving to perhaps be a bit of a wonder child plant food - Better World bug poop plant food. Bug poop. Who would have thunk it? And just for the record, the Better World plant food people are not paying me a single thing to say any of this - not that I'd be against it, but I don't think they know I exist. : ) 

Regardless I am cautiously optimistic that their food is making my plants happy!

another view of one of my Heavenly-scented beauties!

As soon as I had fed my peony this food, about 2 weeks ago, I swear within a few hours the plant stood more upright, the stems more straight then bending over. I had a feeling something good was happening. I think I may have been right!

In it's corner with close to five to six hours of
sunlight, some wind protection and
two feedings of Better World plant food!

I am very happy to see this latest development. The peony has not been removed from it's original container by the way. 

I came across a helpful site on peonies and this what they had to say about peonies in containers.

Note the point about leaving a peony in a pot on a balcony in Montreal - that it would probably kill it. Um, I wonder if that meant Toronto as well cause I did just that, and both my peonies survived?! I am a lucky balcony gardener indeed!

Here's my Nancy Nora Garden Peony

I have two peonies in their original containers that sit nestled in against the east and south wall. This one, a Nancy Nora Garden Peony, developed such bad powdery mildew last year that I wondered if it would make it at all this year. It received two feedings of Better World as well. Considering how hard the plant was hit last year I am amazed that it is around at all so I didn't expect any blooms this year. It has developed lovely deep green foliage and I think this year may just be a building reserves year for it. I am very happy to have it still with me.

A view of the other side of the Nancy Peony.
 It's deep green foliage looks good!

So there you have it. My Peony miracle! I will continue feeding them during the summer and fall as I have read that they are heavy feeders so I hope that with the Better World product, I will rebuild the soil so the plants can bloom again next summer and be more resistant to disease as well. So far so good with the powdery mildew. My two catnip plants showed some good beginnings of the mildew (supposedly they are notorious for developing it) so I threw the one plant out as it was beyond hope and the other I cut it right back and check on it daily now. If any more develops I will toss it out cause it just isn't worth risking the other plants getting infected from it as powdery mildew is easily spread.

One last parting shot of the beauty on the balcony.

I will transplant them this fall into larger containers. They've earned it!

Overlooking a City Summer Sunset...

looking south south-west from my 19th floor balcony

Won't you join me for a summer sunset tea?

Big Storm Rolling In

Shot from inside my balcony door and through the dirty window
and pigeon net. Notice there are NO balcony hanging containers on the railing.

After a day of high heat and humidity (I think it was 42ºC with the humidity today) no surprise we got a boomer on the way. They predicted winds up to 120 km so to be on the safe side all the hanging containers got taken down and the big begonia is in the apartment. After the last big wind storm we had (where one of my heavy hanging containers got ripped overboard) I just won't chance it. I don't want to injure anyone on the ground. Looks like it this storm may pass as fast as it came upon us. Ah summer.

Transplanting the Cucumber into a Container and Finding It a Home on the Balcony

Finally transplanting the cucumber

So I finally transplanted the cucumber. I wanted to wait till it was a little larger as I had heard that cucumbers really don't like having their roots bothered so I thought I'd wait till it was larger so it could withstand the trauma of transplanting. 

I noticed a little while after I transplanted it that one leave was wilted. I had sort of dropped it on it's head, so to speak, as I was trying to get off the coconut husk container. I hate those things. Anyway, it spilt out an landed on it's head so I hope it bounces back. Otherwise $3.50 down the drain. We'll see though, I have hope!

It's new home!

I found a spot lower down and that way it's vines can grow out onto the ground and be supported. I just love cucumber vines. A little prickly, but they look gorgeous! I also planted some cucumbers from seed today, an heirloom variety and I will post on that shortly.

Time to Harvest Spinach and Radishes!

Harvested one row of spinach that is in the pot and the other row still in the basket container

I noticed the radish greens were getting kind of high and looked like they were preparing to go to seed. The spinach needed to be harvested as well. So I began.The spinach was/is lovely! I think I will get one big or two medium feedings of it and I will do a salad instead of steaming. Since I know where this spinach has come from and my hands were clean when harvesting it, as well as washing it twice in clean water, to get the maximum nutrients and taste I will be eating the spinach leaves raw. Even though I buy organic fresh lettuce from the store I ALWAYS steam it.

The radishes were, well, a disappointment.  I think I got 4 if I am lucky. The rest were nothing but a little red root or an orb of wood. Two things I think I did wrong:

1) The container wasn't deep enough

2) I waited too long to harvest

So, I may try again, plant some radishes in a container twice as deep and also to make sure I pull them before the greens bolt. Well, that's what this blog is about - figuring out what does and doesn't work. The spinach though, great for basket containers so I'd say it was a success!

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! 

The Radishes are Near Ready

The first radish out of my first balcony radish container garden

I saw the red tops poking through the soil and I just couldn't help myself - I had to pull one. And here it is! And it tasted absolutely delicious! These were planted on April 14th so a month and a half later, they're pretty much ready.

Here's the radish container with the radish laying on top. I LOVE the color of red it is.

I am going to give them another few days and then harvest. It's so satisfying to grow one's own food especially when it's in the middle of the big city.