The Garden

[PHOBoS]

I used a photo storage box as a planter for the Leontopodium alpinum (Edelweiss) and Sedum floriferum 'Weihenstephaner Gold'.
It fits nicely next to the larger alpine planter in which the Sedum pachyclados has started to flower and it has quite a lot of flower buds.

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20240425 - Sedum pachyclados - 03.jpg
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[PHOBoS]

The maple 'tree' has been transplanted. Never planned on growing it but it has been doing pretty well and find the thought
of growing a tree on my balcony somewhat amusing. It wasn't in the right spot though. Plenty of root space, well maybe not
really for a tree but more than enough for its current size, but hardly any space to grow taller or wider. Besides that it was
also taking up space I want to use for other plants.

It now has its own pot and because it's a tree it hardly takes up any space at surface level so I can use that for other plants.
I used half of that now for the (rather leggy looking) Collinsia herophylla bicolor seedlings and added some fresh seeds too.
The other half is still unused. If any of the Lupine seedlings survive I might plant those in there or maybe some Buckwheat.



Phacelia tanacetifolia is growing nicely sofar but is densely packed so might stay a bit smaller. The temperature is about
to go up (more than I'd personally like) so things will probably start to take off in the next couple of weeks.

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[Skrog Productions]

balcony looking great Pho
Have any mason bees moved into the wooden tubes house up on the wall ?

Nice construction with the alpine planter

[PHOBoS]

I got some other things (besides plants) for my balcony. The visible section of the wall below the planter with the Ivy
has been a bugging me, it's just too bright. painting isn't an option so I looked around to see if I had anything I could
use to cover it up. I settled on using an old wooden frame from a makeshift greenhouse and stapled some of that rubbery
stuff to it that is normally used to prevent things (like synths) from sliding around. After I put it in place I noticed that it
resembled a chalkboard,..



I found one online that already had the right dimensions and ordered some other things too including:
- a big acorn for peanuts.
This year I hung a couple of those small peanut filled plastic nets on my balcony and they are a hit with tits and
apparently sparrows. I mainly hang them against the wall but it's rather inconvenient to replace them and I also
don't like how it looks. This acorn is really easy to hang and stores a lot of peanuts so I don't even have to
refill it often and on top of that I think it looks great! It's also free hanging so the birds have access from all sides.

I already had a nice metal hook for it and I just had to figure out a way to attach that hook to the wall (cant drill in it).
I mounted the hook to a piece of wood and added a small hook at the top so it can hang from the grating that is mounted
against the wall. I also added an eye screw at the bottom and used metal wire to to secure it to the grating. That worked
out even better than expected and it feels very solid. It also makes it easy to take off and place somewhere else.


- a box to provide shelter for ladybugs (and other insects)
It's just and empty wooden box with some slits in the sides and it's suggested to fill it with leaves or rolled up cardboard.
I used straw instead because I now have a whole box of that (it was used as filler for one of the plant orders).
Didn't really like the locking mechanism, it works ok-ish but looks too flimsy so replaced that with something that will probably
outlive the box itself. Still had to use the original locking mechanism to keep it shut as there was too much free play and in
hindsight that might have sufficed. I do like how it looks now though and it fits in with the birdhouse.

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20240428 - acorn birdfeeder - 01.jpg
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[PHOBoS]

[PHOBoS]

And,.. I got another plant.

I've been watching some gardening videos and one of the plants that caught my eyes turned out to be Impatiens aka Busy lizzie.
I was familiar with the dutch name (vlijtig liesje) but not really with the plant. It has dark green foliage which makes the big bright flowers
really stand out. It also likes shade which could work well on my balcony and I do seem to have a bit of extra space for shade plants.

Because I had to go shopping today to get some other things and was already close to the garden center I had a look for it.
They did have them in several colors (red/orange/pink/white) and while I was trying to decide which one I liked best I noticed one
that didn't even had any flowers yet but made me go

Just the foliage alone is stunning and there are also a lot of flower buds hiding between those leaves. Don't know what the color will be,
probably not white judging by the buds so that'll be a surprise but whatever it is it'll be gorgeous. (if I don't kill it first)
It's not a hardy plant, and therefor sold as an annual but depending on how well it does I might try to overwinter it inside.

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20240429 - Impatiens 'New Guinea' - 01.jpg
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[blue hell]

[PHOBoS]

you've probably seen them but were unaware of what they are. They are sold at a lot of places around this time of year
as 'perkgoed' just like violas/pansies and petunias. However those are more likely to be Impatiens walleriana which are smaller
compared to the one I have which is Impatiens hawkeri (technically not a Busy lizzie). Didn't know there was a difference
until I got home and looked up the name on the pot. I am glad I got this one though.

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20240430 - balcony - 07.jpg
Description:	probably not its final location as I still have to move some things around but it might give a better idea of its size.
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[PHOBoS]

[PHOBoS]

holy shit

[PHOBoS]

10 Pepper plants have been transplanted, interspersed with red and yellow cosmos. We'll find out if that was a good idea later.

Phacelia tanacetifolia is coming along nicely and is starting to grow through the baskets. I noticed the lavender is also starting
to get flowers and both of those should attract a lot of pollinators.

In the pot with the white Henbane (Hyoscyamus albus) a lot of seedlings are popping up which should be henbane as well.
There's only 1 plant left, which is still surprising considering that it's grown as an annual, but because it does very well in
that location and I like it a lot I've scattered some seeds around which appears to have worked. There are also some
Daturas popping up in there.

The woodland plants are doing well, especially the viola seems to very happy. The Persicaria affinis also looks very healthy.

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20240503 - Hyoscyamus albus - 01.jpg
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20240503 - Persicaria affinis 'Darjeeling Red' - 01.jpg
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[PHOBoS]

it's getting there,..

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[blue hell]

Ah, peppers, so that then are the new plants my neighbour is growing on his balcony .. didn't have a chance to ask him yet :)

I should show him some pics from here as he is getting into plants more and more lately..

And me, nah, I like plants and your balcony looks great but i do not have the patience & attention for it .. so eh .. they'll get not enough or too much .. water ..wind .. sun .. whatever ...

[PHOBoS]

[PHOBoS]

it's Pink! the impatience that is. Fits in nicely with the some of the alpine flowers, the Fuchsia (it's not quite there yet)
and even the Pulsatilla vulgaris decided to join in, really wasn't expecting any more flowers on it this year.

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20240512 - Impatiens 'New Guinea' - 04.jpg
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[PHOBoS]

I spotted a small empty space that I could cram some more plants in. I already had the perfect pot but it did had to be raised a bit
so I got creative with some scraps of wood and it worked out great. Not sure how well anything will do in there, it's only a small pot
and I planted 1 sunflower, 2 snap dragons and for the fun of it some buckwheat seeds in there. I planted the rest of the snapdragons
that still needed a home in the planters with the peppers and put some buckwheat seeds in those as well.

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20240511 - balcony - 17.jpg
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20240512 - balcony - 19.jpg
Description:	much better! (also installed an extra barrier to keep the edelweiss in check)
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[PHOBoS]

The Petunia is doing great.

apparently you can also get glow-in-the-dark Petunias now, at least if you are in the US: https://light.bio/
They're a bit too pricey for my liking anyway, especially considering that it's an annual plant and according to some comments
I've read they do glow but not as bright as it looks in the photos. I think a glow-in-the-dark ivy could be very nice though.

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[PHOBoS]

I got a couple more plants, 4 for inside (maybe more about that later) and 3 for outside.

In the left corner next to the large black planter (AKA the witch garden) there is a spot that gets practically no light so it's
hard to grow anything there unless it's pretty tall. There's also a part of the wall visible that I wanted to cover up so I got
some yellow variegated ivy (Hedera helix 'Golden kolibri') which should grow very well there. The bottom half does get
covered up by the small witches broom so it doesn't look as tall as it actually is but I am quite happy with it.

As often it was not a single plant but a couple of plants in a trench coat pot and I spread them out a bit with one of
them growing more to the left so it can intermingle with the dark green ivy and another one more towards the front,
growing along the edge of a large piece of bark.


Another plant I got was a new foxglove. The one I already had got most of it's leaves crushed after the birds managed
to pull the jar with peanut butter off the wall which fell right on top of it. I am pretty sure it will survive but there isn't
much left of it and I doubt it will have enough energy to flower. I actually have no idea if they are supposed to flower
this year or next year.

And I got another sedum to put in my alpine gutter planter. Most of the Delosperma I put in there died, likely because it got
too wet in autumn/winter and maybe because the birds sometimes walk over it, one of them has survived though.
There are still a bunch of Sempervivums in there and some of those feel really well rooted. It'll be really nice if the whole
planter gets covered with just Sempervivums but even better if there are some other plants in there too.

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20240513 - Hedera helix 'Golden Kolibri' - 01.jpg
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20240513 - Hedera helix 'Golden Kolibri' - 02.jpg
Description:	also visible is the new foxglove (Digitalis x mertonensis)
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20240513 - alpine gutter - 01.jpg
Description:	new Sedum in the alpine gutter planter. They never label these properly so I don't know yet which variety this is.
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[PHOBoS]

Thunbergia alata has begun the ascent. From all the seeds I've sown only 1 germinated (at least sofar) but if it grows anything like
Morning glory that should be enough.

Speaking of Morning Glories those have started to pop up in places too. The ones in the black pot close to my kitchen window are of
the 'Venice Pink' variety and should have white/pink striped flowers. There are 6 seedlings in there and ones they start to take off that
could be a lot and get pretty wild.

One seedling has popped up in the pot with the climbing nightshade & lungwort, I didn't sow any in there this year so it probably self
seeded from the 'Milky Way' variety I grew there last year. However, it could turn out to be a different variety.

There are also 2 seedlings growing close to the sunflower (Helianthus annuus Procut Peach) with the intention that they'll climb up said
sunflower. I did sow those myself but I am not sure what they will turn out to be. Initially I dumped some 'Heavenly Blue 'seeds in that spot
but because nothing sprouted (it was too cold) I later added some more seeds but those came from a mix. So for now I just labeled it as 'X'.

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20240518 - Thunbergia alata - 01.jpg
Description:	sunflower from a 'red mix' growing in the top left
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20240519 - Ipomoea purpurea 'Venice Pink'- 01.jpg
Description:	Currently covered to protect it from being trampled by birds (I am watching you Pigeon).
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20240519 - Ipomoea tricolor 'Milky Way' - 01.jpg
Description:	Morning Glory in the center, the other tall seedlings are Buckwheat.
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20240519 - Ipomoea 'X' - 01.jpg
Description:	what color will these be ? place your bets now!
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20240519 - Solanum dulcamara - 02.jpg
Description:	The climbing nightshade is doing great as always and is starting to produce flowers. When I cut it back I sometimes place cuttings back in the pot so at this point it's not just a single plant anymore but it has an army of clones.
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[PHOBoS]

Intermission with some birds

[PHOBoS]

[PHOBoS]

I have an old (damaged) aquarium that I sometimes use early in the year as a makeshift greenhouse or just to create some extra space
for seedlings. For the rest of the year it is stored underneath the low table that currently has the Lillies and some other plants on it.
I did actually make that one to size so that the aquarium would fit underneath. I usually store some pots there and the aquarium
(besides being out of the way) keeps that area a bit cleaner. I did manage to break one side this year by being an idiot but for how I use it
that doesn't really matter much, it's actually even more convenient.

When the sun is out some rays shine through it from the back and that got me thinking that it could be nice to put a colored filter on it.
I still had a small piece of window foil that I used on the back door so I applied that to it. It only covers a section of the backside (which
is actually the bottom of the aquarium) but it's enough since the rest isn't visible anyway. I also added a piece of different (green) vinyl
and I think it looks much nicer now.

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20230507 - balcony - 07.jpg
Description:	example of how I used it last year
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[PHOBoS]

Some more creativity in the form of a small hanging planter that I made last night. I've been looking around to see if I can fit
more plants on my balcony and I know from my synth building that if you run out of 2D space you just have to move to the next
dimension. Too bad I can't use 4D space (yet).

The table with the alpine planter on it usually had large pots with pepper plants and those would take up most of the space.
Because the alpine plants don't grow very tall and also don't require very deep pots I now have space available above them.
The sun isn't coming from the top anyway, it's more at an angle from the front, so in theory I could add a couple of shelves.
I don't want to cover it all with plants though, I like that it's a bit more open now and I also have plants on the other side of
the window that aren't getting a lot of light as is. I might still add some extra storage but not this year.


anyway,.. the shallow planter that I used probably had some bulbs in it at one point. I drilled 3 holes in the rim and bend copper wire into hooks
so I could attach some chains. I also bend a piece of wire into a hoop to support the rim and distribute the weight. I planted 3 coleus* plants and
3 variegated ivy plants in it. The ivy is one of the plants I got for inside but (as what seems to be a common occurrence) it turned out to be
5 smaller plants in a single pot. If they survive then I could place them back inside at the end of the year and hopefully a lot bigger.

The plastic pot in the center is currently a placeholder. I might leave it in there and make some holes in the side so it allows for easy watering.
I could of course also add another plant but I am not sure what would fit. Some kind of grass would probably look nice, for example Japanese sedge
(Carex oshimensis) but I don't think I would be able to find one that is small enough to fit. Black grass (Ophiopogon planiscapus niger) might also
look nice but I think I should leave that one for next year to combine with the Coleus 'Wizard Black Dragon'.
Maybe I can find a herb-Robert (Geranium robertianum) growing somewhere or another kind of "weed".



* I have a seedtray with 23 Coleus seedlings (only 1 didn't make it) so I am trying to find spaces to plant them. I know from when I grew them
in 2022 that they do fine in small pots, they just stay smaller. They also had brighter colors but that could have had more to do with location.

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20240519 - small hanging planter - 01.jpg
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[PHOBoS]

here's what's happening in this small black greenhouse



top row, left-to-right:
- Datura metel 'ballerina mix', 2/6 seeds sprouted
- Atropa belladonna var. lutea
- Atropa komarovii (Turkmenistan Belladonna)

bottom row, left-to-right:
- Lamium maculatum, 2 of the 5 cuttings, I have another one that rooted in a separate pot. I am glad I made cuttings because I don't think the plant survived.
- Atropa belladonna var. lutea, seeds harvested from a plant that I grew in 2020.
- Mandragora officinarum aka Mandrake, 2 seedlings, let's see how long they survive this year.

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20240519 - nightshade seedlings - 01.jpg
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[PHOBoS]

Phacelia tanacetifolia is developing flower buds. I think that adding the hanging baskets as support worked really well.
It also protected the seedlings from the birds but at the same time they used the baskets as a landing spot.
So when the plants started to grow above them I added a couple of sticks as well to deter the birds and keep them
from breaking off the tips of the plants.

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20240519 - Phacelia tanacetifolia - 05.jpg
Description:	note that I hung the planter lower so they might look smaller than on previous photos
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