Balcony update

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It is high time we had an update on our balcony experiment. For those who don’t know about this project, I have decided that, this year, I will grow a proportion of our vegetables in containers on our balcony. Full details of what vegetables we are growing on the balcony and regular updates on their progress can be found on the Balcony Experiment page.

The heliotrope is flowering beautifully and makes even the sunniest day seem a little richer with its deep purple flowers 🙂

The strawberry plants have settled well into their hanging pouches, are looking very hale and hearty, and are starting to show signs of flowers coming. I did try to take some photos of the flower buds, but there wasn’t enough colour variation to show up the buds against the leaves. A few more days and we should have proper flowers 🙂

The container grown runner beans are racing up their bamboo wigwam. They are well on their way to the top, and once there I have to work out where to direct them to next – maybe I could set out some horizontal lines for them to spread along? The runner beans are also showing their first signs of flowering, with the first lovely orangey-red blossoms starting to appear amongst the foliage.

Unfortunately the sweet pea seeds that I sowed under the runner beans are not showing their heads yet – they can have a few more days, and then I will have to re-sow them in pots indoors so that they can catch up. I suspect that now the runner beans have gone so far ahead, the shade will keep the sweet pea seeds too cool to come up so growing them in pots and them in pots and then planting them out may prove to be the only answer now.

Our home grown cherry tomato seedlings are looking very pathetic. They have been very slow to come and I gave up and bought some tomato plants last week. The bought tomato plants are doing well, so they can keep us going and we will have to hope that the seedlings catch up.

Also in pots on the balcony, at the moment, we have our young pumpkin and squash plants, just waiting to grow big enough to plant out in the veg garden. They are looking a bit yellow around the leaves at the moment. We were a little late getting them potted up into larger pots, and I think they got a little hungry while they waited to be transplanted. I am due to feed everything with tomato food this weekend, so they can have a feed at the same time, and I’m sure that will put a little colour back in their cheeks.

Leave a comment or tell us how your plants are doing