Green balcony with a bit of colour

This is my first garden blog for the season. Springtime started off rainy and cold. The night time temperatures are still 8-9 degrees Celsius. It also took a while to warm up to the idea of planting seeds indoors. Spring and nature has a mind of its own and that is apparent in my balcony garden. You will see what I mean as I go along.

Plants which survived winter

The thyme that I propagated and planted last year sprung back to life. I am very proud because it was my first attempt and I was told planting thyme in this way is difficult. To see the plants flourishing is a testament to spring and the magic of nature.

beautiful thyme flowers

The thyme began flowering and that was my cue to start harvesting. As this plant is in its second year, I harvested down to the start of the woody stem. By harvesting, I am also pruning the plant. Lovely green shoot will sprout again. I learnt recently that the flowers are also edible – seems logical.

I am equally as proud of these 3 rosemary plants – propagated and thriving as well.

beautiful new stems on the rosemary plant

I have also harvested lots of sprigs which prevents the plant from growing too tall. Harvesting allows the side branches to grow and keeps the plant looking healthy.

The leaves of bay leaf plant looks fresh and green.

The mint bush also sprung back beautifully. I am enjoying lovely fragrant cups of tea.

mint bush in the sun

The 36 strawberry plants from last year are looking beautiful with lots of flowers and small strawberries. It sound like a lot but we are a family of 5. 😄

illuminated strawberry flowers

The family and I are anticipating enjoying delicious strawberries again this year; there are 4 different varieties.

New plants in the table garden

The sugar snaps and pea plants are finding their way along the trellis. Soon the plants will be covered in beautiful white flowers.

The purple and orange carrots plants are also looking well.

The Pak soi was devoured - most likely by snails.

It is the first time that I've had this issue in the table garden which is literally a table - so not on the ground. Last year this happened in grow bags only. There is always a first time for everything. I will change the soil in that section of the table garden and plant the Pak soi again. It grows very fast.

I have harvested and replanted lettuce. These are still young and doing well.

The arugula(rucola) is going wild – I harvest daily and remove any flowers to ensure that the leaves remain tasty.

The beets are still small as I had forgotten to plant them earlier.

I like turnip in salads and soups. I might have planted too many seeds and I find it difficult to thin out plants and throw them away. What about you?

turnip leaves in the rain

We do not eat a lot of potatoes - so some that I bought had sprouted. I placed them in the soil - now it looks as though I have a small potato field on my balcony. I was a bit over zealous. They look so healthy - I will keep them.

I waited patiently for the Curcubits to germinate - nothing happened. I was about to give up when I learnt this trick. Place the seeds in transparent plastic ziplock bag. Eliminate all the air - tape the bag to the inside of a (kitchen) closet door. Leave them for a few days. I am eager to see the cucumber seeds germinate.

germinating courgette (zucchini) seed

Plants which are still indoors

I enjoy eating basil so I decided to plant it again this year. After placing sprigs of basil with the stem in water for weeks - they rooted nicely.

The end results after planting them in soil are these beautiful plants.

This year I will keep the basil plants at the windowsill because last year it did not do well outside in the sun.

As I have a balcony/terrace garden - space is a bit limited. The tomatoes seeds did not germinate for a long time, so I tried again. Now I have 3 types of tomatoes and 12 plants.
buds on a tomato plant

The same is true for the red bell peppers. I now have 10 plants
bell pepper plant in the sun

I will give tomato and pepper plants as gifts to friends.

The marigold has not yet grown but my trusty old lavender plant has revived again. The flowers have already bloomed- providing a bit of colour in a sea of green.

I hope you enjoy my garden update.

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All photos are my own and taken with an iPhone SE 2020.