On the balcony

I mentioned last month that I was starting to plan out our balcony garden for the Spring/Summer and I must admit that we've yet to really get out there to get it started. I've done lots of scouring the internet for inspiration, though! That totally counts. Right? When I came across this photo by geninne d. zlatkis I realised that mostly I just want lots and lots of plants. I feel like if I just overwhelm the space with pots full of green, I'll get the cozy, secret garden feel I'm looking for. It is a really large area, which we're totally lucky to have, but it also means a huge space to fill! It's also a pretty exposed place, so along with some pretty daisy type bushes I'm leaning toward picking up a bunch of succulents that will hopefully best be able to withstand a lot of sunlight and being out in the open on what is essentially a giant concrete slab.

images sourced from living in penny, charles & hudson, green renters, the kitchn

Staying with the secret garden feel, I plan on picking up some clematis and maybe honeysuckle this weekend to get going on our trellis that we've put up on either side to offer a little privacy. The weather has partly been an excuse for us not getting out in the 'garden' but with the beautiful forecast we've got this weekend I can put it off no longer! Although, you never can tell with Vancouver weather so we shall see. I'll report back on Monday!

Postcarden

Hot on the heels of my last gardening post I found these adorable Postcarden over on Heavy Petal and just had to share. You can choose from the above allotment garden, a city garden or a botanical garden. I think this would be a really sweet gift, especially if you know someone who's workspace needs a little greening up. The more greenery the better, in my opinion!

And because I have urban gardening and allotments on the brain I wanted to point you in the direction of a fantastic program called 'Sharing Backyards', that as the name would suggest is a space for people who have yards and space to share to connect with those looking to garden but don't have the space. We're lucky in Vancouver to have a fair amount of community gardens (both city sanctioned and not) but plots can still fill up fairly fast, and if you're not totally down with doing your own guerilla gardening then this could be the way to go. I especially like the communal aspects of it, and of course if you have some space but aren't sure where to start then perhaps this way you could find someone to come give you a hand to get going.

How does your garden grow

guerilla garden in a newspaper box by posterchild, found here

With Spring in the air (despite the snow in parts of Vancouver lately) gardening has been fresh in my mind. I definitely dream of one day having a beautiful big section where I can grow all sorts of veggies and have cottagey, rambling garden. But for now despite living in an apartment, we're lucky enough to have a really large balcony, almost half the size of our apartment in fact, for us to garden on. Right now it's looking pretty neglected from us hibernating during the winter rain but I'm planning on having a bit of a working bee out there this weekend to get it cleaned up and ready to go. I've decided that this year I'm going to actually plan out what and where I'd like to plant, rather than just going to the farmers market and excitedly buy a bunch of corn seedlings (which did actually grow, but got dragged away by critters). After reading this post over at All Buttoned Up I felt really content with being a middle sized gardener. Biting off more than I can chew comes way too easily so this year it will be a few plants that I have time, space and patience for. I'm thinking peas, beans, tomatoes, some leafy greens a cuke or two and maybe a few fall/winter veggies. Also, because our balcony is basically a rather large concrete slab I'd like to plant some bright flowers or hanging baskets (also to bring some bees in!) and some creepers to give it more of a 'garden-y' feel. Any suggestions of hardy, fast growing creepers I can let loose on our trellis but easily stop from taking over the co-op would be great.

I'd also love to know what's in your gardens, lovely readers. Do tell!

Perhaps you'd love to try your hand at growing your own food but are also pushed for space. If so be sure to check out Gayla Trail's new book 'Grow Great Grub', all about growing organic produce in urban areas. I love how she challenges the idea of needing a ton of space to be able to have a veggie garden, and her suggestions are super creative and workable. Once you've started you'll probably need this cute 'Microfarmer' tee, too. I know I do.

Tom and Barbara

Secretly this is who I want to be. I don't think I fully understood the whole homesteading aspect of the show when I watched it as a young girl. Mostly I just liked the way they talked and honestly believed my Grandma played the part of Margo Leadbetter (an uncanny resemblance to Penelope Keith).

Now 20 or so years on, Richard and I are embracing the idea of living simply and becoming somewhat self-sufficient. We've got a pretty large balcony, so a lucky enough to have a decent amount of space for living in the city - which means lots of place to play and attempt to grow our own food. Mostly we don't know what we're doing. I did find this excellent book though recently, on sale at People's Co-op Books on the drive. Such a treat! It has so many great things in there, from step by step instructions on how to begin growing from seed, to a guideline for making a herbal tea garden complete with handmade teabags. Love it! Its been super helpful, so I thought I would take you on a little trip through our first gardening attempts. Be sure to check out the website. We got our first few plants awhile back at a local community garden, so while shopping at Home Depot recently we thought we'd pick up a few more and some potting mix. Of course us not driving often makes expeditions like this a little tricky, but luckily this time a Capers shopping trolley came to our rescue. Living where we do, we got no strange looks whatsoever.

Plants so far - basil x 2, arctic kiwi, lavender, some cute succulent, a few cacti and jasmine.

I've since been warned not to buy plants from there, apparently they often come with diseases. Oh no! My theory is that we'll love ours back to health if this is the case.

My next gardening stop was The Vancouver Seed bank for some winter veggie seeds. I have gotten a bit of conflicting advice about starting seeds at this time of year, but I figure that it has been super sunny and warm so I may as well give it a go. I honestly thought the seed bank was another pot store, but it turns out they have a fairly wide seed collection, so I picked up some broccoli, cauliflower and dwarf kale seeds. Yum!

As Friday was lovely and sunny, we decided to head over to Urban Garden and grab some sees starter, etc. We were lucky enough to be given a bunch of window boxes and flower pots. So we got to work transplanting the plants we'd already bought, and sowing our peas and salad mix.

Unfortunately waking up to grey, rainy skies on Saturday dampened our spirit a little, Murphy,s bloody Law. So rather than continuing on in our gardening frenzy, we popped up to Figaro's Garden near Commercial Drive to take a look while we waited for the sun to come out. That store is such a treat! We managed to get some great new potting mix and a few more garden treats.

Plant stock take x 2 - rainbow chard, hot pepper, cilantro and an eggplant with beautiful purple blooms!

So while I was a little worried about my seed babies (I've been dragging them around the balcony to get as much sun as possible), we figured we'd leave the plants out in the drizzle for now (but doesn't the jasmine look so happy in her new, roomy home!) and head down to the pub for some beer and a yarn, with yarn and our lovely friends Robert and Amber. Perfect for a rainy evening. Ciao!