Joined: Jan 14, 2010 Posts: 5810 Location: Moon Base
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Posted: Mon Oct 26, 2020 10:21 am Post subject:
ah that would explain the dead looking parts. Yeah in that case just cutting back wouldn't do much good.
I am not allowed to paint, it just has been painted and it was white before, at least the ceiling and that part on the side.
A lot of light is lost because it is now closed of completely from the side that I get most of the sun untill later in the year. _________________ "My perf, it's full of holes!" http://phobos.000space.com/ SoundCloudBandCampMixCloudStickney SynthyardsCaptain ColliderTwitchYouTube
Joined: Jan 14, 2010 Posts: 5810 Location: Moon Base
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Posted: Fri Nov 27, 2020 10:22 am Post subject:
Finally got my plants back, or what's left of them and I removed all the dead parts and weeds. Two small foxgloves hitched along,
at least I think that's what they are so that's nice and the African Daisies did pretty well. I am not sure yet how I am going to organize
everything as it doesn't fit the way it was but I'll probably figure something out.
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Joined: Jan 14, 2010 Posts: 5810 Location: Moon Base
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Posted: Thu Apr 08, 2021 11:54 am Post subject:
time to stop phocrastinating and start cultivating, though the weather did seem to disagree with that the last couple of days.
It will probably take a while before my balcony gets to what it was. Can't fit things the same way since it is smaller now and
I think a lot of plants might have died. So I will check this year what is still alive and figure out how to move things around a bit.
here are the first signs of life from the pulmonaria (lungwort), which I did expect to survive. It's in the same container as the
Solanum dulcamara (climbing nightshade) which has also started to grow again. I was a bit a bit worried about that one because
we did have a some lower temperatures than previous years, though it should be able to handle that, but in a container it doesn't
have a lot of protection against frost. I didn't take any photos of it yet but it has started growing some new leaves.
edit: you can actually see some new growth on it in the 2nd photo
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Joined: Jan 14, 2010 Posts: 5810 Location: Moon Base
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Posted: Thu Apr 08, 2021 12:27 pm Post subject:
it actually came back with a mate and even made something that I guess had to pass as a nest. I am not so sure about pidgeon
DIY I think it needs more practise, but I probably wouldn't do well without hands either. Since my balcony is in shambles I thought,
well if you insist and leave my plants alone (not sure about that) I could allow it, they did look cute together.
Of couse not in a pot on top of another plant. So I took all the twigs out of the pot and moved them aside and instead mounted one
of the baskets on the wall in which it tried to nest previously. I guess they gave up and maybe found another spot as they didn't
return to nest and now I feel kinda bad about it. I did see them again to grab some food though.
Tits are dropping by again too and I can hardly keep up with the supply of sunflower seeds.
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Joined: Jan 14, 2010 Posts: 5810 Location: Moon Base
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Posted: Thu Apr 08, 2021 12:43 pm Post subject:
I also started some peppers. Didn't have any luck (yet) with the Habalokia red but got some Fresno, Royal Black, Red Cap Mushroom,
Fatalii Yellow, and Habanero Lemon seedlings. The Royal Black peppers are starting to become recognizable now with purple leaves.
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Joined: Jan 14, 2010 Posts: 5810 Location: Moon Base
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Posted: Thu Apr 08, 2021 12:54 pm Post subject:
Got a nice suprise when I grabbed the pot to put the Lilium Flore Pleno (Tiger Lily) back in the ground. Some of the small bulbils must have gotten
burried when I took it out, survived the frost and sprouted I had to dig them out first to put the bulb back in but it looks like they are doing ok.
I am not expecting them to flower this year but if I can keep them alive I might have some more flowers in coming years.
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Ah, spring time @ PHOBoS' balcony May it soon be all green and flowery again!
They cut down just about all the shrubs and trees here .. but there still are some 'krentenboompjes' (Amelanchier / also known as shadbush, shadwood or shadblow, serviceberry or sarvisberry (or just sarvis), juneberry, saskatoon, sugarplum, wild-plum or chuckley pear) starting to get white .. slowly now .. with the low temps .. whuch is nice as it will last longer
And re. the pigeons .. that is a pretty well laboured nest you have there .. they .. erm .. are kind of symbolic with nests (over here a couple didn't even bother to bring twigs at all .. a lil pool of water apparently was good enough ) _________________ Jan
also .. could someone please turn down the thermostat a bit.
Joined: Jan 14, 2010 Posts: 5810 Location: Moon Base
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Posted: Tue Apr 13, 2021 4:58 pm Post subject:
one of the pigeons is still showing up to feed and that explains why I can't keep up with the sunflower seeds,
it just keeps eating until they are all gone. I don't mind if it wants somethign to eat but that doesn't leave anything
for other birds so I put together a simple birdfeeder which I hope is a bit to small for it. Though if it is really determined
it probably can sit on it, but it won't be able to get to the hanging teacup anyway.
I wanted some new snapdragons as I am not sure they survived. I thought they were supposed to be annual anyway
and maybe just survived because of the mild winters. There are some small seedlings coming up in the container so
I might get some new ones anyway but just in case I ordered some fresh seeds and while I was at it some other seeds
aswell.
Lamiastrum galeobdolon is coming up and the Solanum dulcamara has a lot of new growth. There´s also something that
might be a tree of some sort growing in a container. No idea what it is yet but it feels very sturdy.
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Posted: Wed Apr 21, 2021 9:33 am Post subject:
I thought the large container for the witch garden didn't fit anymore after some meaurements but because it is somewhat
flexible I was still able to cram in in there. I also made a plateau to place the climbing nightshade on top of it.
Convallaris majalis is coming up nicely, peppers are growing and Celosia seeds are sprouting. I also planted the
Convolvulus tricolor (dwarf morning glory) which I first soaked in water for about 24h and then placed in coffee filter
for another 24h after which they had already sprouted. The Thunbergia seeds got the same treatment and were put
in the ground earlier today.
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Joined: Jan 14, 2010 Posts: 5810 Location: Moon Base
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Posted: Wed May 12, 2021 11:29 am Post subject:
My God, it's full of stars!
I got my hands on a Night Sky Petunia
note that the flowers are just purple (not as blue like in the photos) with white blotches. They don't have a blue/purple gradient,
my camera probably got a bit overwhelmed by it. Should go well with the 'Flying Saucers' and 'Milky Way' Morning Glories,.
The dwarf Morning Glories are looking promising and I've also sown some of the pink ones that I started with many years ago.
I am still not sure what kind of variety those are and the seeds look rather different then all the other ones I've grown.
I've always had good results growing those and again a lot of the seeds have sprouted.
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Posted: Tue May 18, 2021 3:13 pm Post subject:
I am bit behind with updates but here are some more photos. Peppers have been transplanted to larger pots and are outside now
as it was getting a bit too crowded in there and I noticed some aphids (blasted them of with some plain water).
I am pretty sure the unknown plant is a maple so I guess I'm growing a tree now. I doubt it can get very large in that container
but I'll just let it grow and see what happens.
The Ferns have started to spiral out!
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Joined: Jan 14, 2010 Posts: 5810 Location: Moon Base
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Posted: Tue May 18, 2021 3:25 pm Post subject:
Convallaris majalis is flowering, I love those little bell shaped flowers and they smell nice too.
Solanum dulcamara is doing great and I have spotted some flower buds on it.
A lot of the henbane seeds germinated so I might finally get some henbane again this year.
The belladonna plants didn't make it but one of them did produced berries last year and I saved some of the seeds.
4 of those have germinated sofar so maybe I can grow a new one. There's also something that look's like a belladonna
growing in another container but those leaves are very similar to the Solanum dulcamara which it is much more likely to be.
It's a bit too early to tell right now.
Coleus seeds have also started to germinate but they are still very tiny.
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Joined: Mar 11, 2014 Posts: 746 Location: New Zealand
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Posted: Wed May 26, 2021 1:00 am Post subject:
PHOBoS wrote:
I am pretty sure the unknown plant is a maple so I guess I'm growing a tree now. I doubt it can get very large in that container
but I'll just let it grow and see what happens.
Joined: Jan 14, 2010 Posts: 5810 Location: Moon Base
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Posted: Wed May 26, 2021 9:23 am Post subject:
I expected that
I've looked into bonsai before and it's a hobby I don't think I should get into, I also don't have the space for it.
But it requires a bunch of materials and a lot of patience as it will take a while before it will even start to look like something.
Since I've gotten pretty good a killing plants it probably wouldn't survive long if I tried. Also when I looked into it I actually
started to feel a bit bad for the plants themselves. They constantly have to be trimmed down including the roots to keep
them smaller than they would want to be. Some of them look amazing though. _________________ "My perf, it's full of holes!" http://phobos.000space.com/ SoundCloudBandCampMixCloudStickney SynthyardsCaptain ColliderTwitchYouTube
Joined: Jan 14, 2010 Posts: 5810 Location: Moon Base
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Posted: Mon Jun 28, 2021 11:17 am Post subject:
Ive been doing a bit of plant maintenance today so here are some updates.
let's start with the night sky petunia. I didn't expect a lot from a supermarket plant and I managed to kill one in a about a day before,
but it's doing great. This one seems to be potted in some good moisture retaining soil which helps a lot as it is getting a lot of full sun.
It keeps producing new very nice looking flowers and the patterns vary quite a bit, some have a lot of white on them others just a couple
of small specs and everything in between. Too bad they are facing outwards towards the light so I can't really see them very well.
I might trim it back a bit as it's getting rather wide and I'd like it to be a bit more bushy. That means I'd have to cut of all of the current
flowers but it should produce new ones in a couple of weeks.
note: I did some color correcting on the photos so the color is a bit closer to how they actually look.
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Posted: Mon Jun 28, 2021 12:09 pm Post subject:
There are also a lot of flowers on the Sempervivums (should have taken the photo a bit sooner). I actually lost quite a bit of them
when they stayed with my parents last year, I think they got overwatered, but they thrive here so there has been a lot of new growth.
They are actually the only plants I tested sofar that really seem to enjoy that spot which is hanging from my balcony railing exposed to
the elements. Actually the small nicotiana variety did pretty ok too but those flowers point outwards aswell so I only see them from the back.
Right now I also have dwarf morning glories hanging from my balcony (second time actually) but they first got too wet for too long and now dry
out very quickly. They're growing and did already produce some flowers and by the looks of it there will be a bunch more in the coming week, but
they're not the best looking plants. (I'll take a photo when there are new flowers)
So for next year, or actually starting this year, I have another idea. The Sempervivums are in a 60cm planter and I do have enough space
for another one of the same size if I remove the planter with the dwarf morning glories, they probably do better in a more sheltered spot anyway.
Since the Sempervivums are doing so well I'll transplant a bunch of those to the other container and add some more different alpine plants to
both containers. Hoping they will thrive aswell. I already got 3 new ones today; 2 of them are small ones that aren't labeled (one has tiny yellow
flowers), the other one is a Dianthus Sunflor "Orange Bling Bling" which is a bit taller with bright red (not orange) flowers. Apparently that is a
short-lived perennial but they do self seed so we'll see how that goes. It does add some nice variety and they are also available in white and yellow.
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Posted: Mon Jun 28, 2021 12:48 pm Post subject:
Peppers are doing their thing, some better than others. I like the darker leaves of the "Royal Black", similar to the Purple Tigers I grew before.
One of those has a broken stem, mostly likely because of a pigeon, so I added some agressive defensive measures (props to Dave).
It's still growing though and at the point where it broke it is producing another shoot.
The Fresno has quite a lot of flowers and there are fruits forming.
I am looking forward to that one, it should be a tasty pepper that's not scorching hot but still has a bit of a kick. The Habanero lemon
plants are also looking good, but no flowers on those yet. They do get less sun in that location compared to the other ones, but I've had
some ghost peppers growing in the same spot before and got the largest harvest ever (for me) from those.
The Fatalii's are the smallest ones right now but the plants do look healthy and feel very firm. I think those were also started a bit later
because the seeds took the longest to germinate. I'll see if I can get them some more sun
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1x Royal Black, 1x Habanero Lemon, 3x Fresno (forgot to label 2 of the seedlings so I am not 100% sure if it is Fresno or something else, but they definitely look like Fresno now) and a struggling Red Cap Mushroom in the right corner
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3x Habanero Lemon, 2x Fatalii, 2.5x Royal Black
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