Wednesday, July 6, 2011

Balcony Update

It's been about 2.5 months since my balcony rose from the ashes with some brand new, hardy plants. I thought I'd give an update on how it's been doing so far.

Here's a little then-now:



Shockingly, I haven't killed anything, hooray! The tomato plants are growing fast and tall and were starting to crowd the other planters, so I took a couple of them and decided to give the upside-down technique a try. Instead of buying one of those ugly cylindrical things you see on TV, I opted to make one myself out of a simple hanging planter.



I cut a 2" hole in the fiber liner and gently pushed the roots up through the hole. Using a scrap of tough cloth (a reusable grocery bag in this case) I cut a smaller hole with a slit about the diameter of the stem and wrapped that around the stem on the inside of the planter, letting it rest on the floor to prevent soil from pouring out.


With the help of Boyfriend (he held the heavy thing to keep from crushing the tomato) I filled the rest of the planter with soil and added some oregano, rosemary and nasturtium at the top. Hopefully the tomato plant will survive. I'm already not expecting a great yield since my plants never see direct sunlight, so at the very least it will give us a smidge more privacy from the neighbors across the way.


Speaking of nasturtium, this plant is taking over my entire balcony! The only way this thing could be more resilient was if it were made of plastic. My poor phormium and dracaena are practically being evicted from their home. 



I've propogated the nasturtium out to other planters, which is as simple as pinching a clump and shoving it into some dirt. And to think, I was SO excited when those first two orange flowers appeared, now I'm throwing away clumps of the thing every day!


5 comments:

  1. ooooh!!! love it!!! :P We have some plants that spread and grow like wildfire (when it isn't winter). I get annoyed that they try to attack the other plants and suffocate them, but my mom always reminds me- it's better to have the problem of things growing too much than not enough. :)

    I LOVE the upside down planters- I never thought of how those could be hung on a balcony for added privacy... brilliant! (and they do look a LOT nicer than the ones they sell lol!)

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  2. Incredible! Even the candle grew into a plant!

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  3. OMG TESS my 2nd comment ever on my blog, lol!
    That's true. I'm happy that my plants are thriving a little too much rather than dying.
    I did a lot of Googling for upside down planters, and you really can make them out of anything!

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  4. Your balcony looks great! How was the crop from your upside down tomato plants?

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    1. Thank you!
      I might have mentioned it in a later post, but the wind totally wiped out my tomato plants before they could even flower! It got pretty windy up on that balcony and with all the swaying, those hanging plants didn't have a chance. Sad.

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