Author: Smokeycastle

Just some art that I do on my spare time.

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Balcony garden going ok, middle of winter here so not much is growing other than the broad beans.

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Chilli plants not looking like they will survive the next two months of winter cold. leaves are starting to dry out and fall off as well as black appearing where the sap should be. for now there is a ground covering of local weed varieties, mostly saladable. I am leaving them there to see if they maybe help the chilli plants.

Coriander going well, nasturtiums recovering from the caterpillars, mint and oregano chugging along slowly. going to move them into an area that gets a little more sun.

Broad beans doing really well. One of the pots showing signs of being too well nutriented with the wrinkly/dancing leaves.

Setting up some more shelves today.

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I now have space for 48 pottery planters for small plants and herbs

Coriander doing ok
nasturtiums recovering from caterpillars
Mint and oregano chugging away but not really growing that much in the cold.

Vine doing ok, starting to take off.

broadbeans growing well should be able to replenish bean seedstock from this growth. no sign of chocolate spot yet (had that problem last season)

Chillis coping ok, they really not liking the colder weather. at this location they are not usually able to survive winter, i am guessing they hang on here because it is a balcony.

bought another 17 pots and stuff and some more seeds, loufa gourd green tamarillo seeds.

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Quick update on the garden,

Broad beans are doing well. Coriander is growing but starting to yellow which indicates a nutrient lack in the potting mix, not sure what nutrient is lacking maybe nitrogen… either way more research is required.

Mint and oregano are growing slowly.

Vine has sprouted some new leaves but old leaves died…

Aloe vera is recovering from being transplanted and is growing as indicated by the lighter green in the floret.

Nasturtiums seem to be slowly recovering from caterpillars

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Currently growing, Nasturtiums, Oregano, Mint, Coriander.

So far coriander growing the best
with oregano a close second.
The nasturtiums did really well at the start until they got eaten by caterpillars

Broad beans doing really well
Friend came over and gave me a Kangaroo Apple that I planted in a pot. also planted 2 almond seeds that went green and a heap of seeds from longan, non have as yet sprouted. Also have some seeds from Custards apple that I am thinking of planting. they are said to do good in this weather.

Have a vine that grew from a grasping took two leaves from the violet to get it to take though as I didnt use petes recommendation of using rooting gel.

Also with this the UV stellation that caused caused maple leaf to become pink around edges.

I also may have added B vitamins to the larger pots due to an argument with a friend. also added a can of crab to the Older san pedro cactus and a can of red kidney beans to the smaller cactus. as well as a royal jelly gel cap to the Older san pedro cactus. after the disagreement had ended I removed all the B vitamins But some had loosened so some of those vitamins will have ended up in the soil.

So, doing some calculations.

My water allowance per year in the unit is 50,000 Litres

Each Rack of shelves has 4 shelves
Each shelf of pottery planters can hold 3 pots
Each pot I think will use around 2 cups of water per day to maintain hydration
There are around 4 cups of water to a litre
I have 5 Large pots not on shelves they use around 3500Litres of water a year at most

I think I can reasonably expect to use less than 15000 Litres of water for the garden per year

With the spare set of shelves I have I am wondering should I assemble them or give them away? if I do assemble them it will make the Balcony somewhat cramped and I wont be able to place them where they can get natural skywater.

I do have a second balcony that I use for meditation currently. I could assemble a planter rack there However I would have to haul water through my bedroom over carpet to do so.

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Garden is coming along nicely. coriander and nasturtiums are doing well so far. chives did not seem to sprout, mint and parsley sprouted but are not growing much as yet.

Broad beans are growing well but the leaf curling indicates the soil is getting too rich for them

Building the second set of planter rack shelving

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Installing the new set of shelves:

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Last set of terracotta pots I will be setting up before spring they contain oregano and italian parsley

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I have a heap of soil left over, 25L of cactus potting mix and around 15-20L of normal garden potting mix. Not sure what to do with them, I know from past experience I cant really hold onto them as the bags decay very quick even when stored inside a shed. I am probably going to give them away on FB market place or gumtree

Now all that remains is to wire up the shelves to stop the pots being able to be blown away by a strong gust, water the pots and hope/wait for the seeds to sprout. Usually I let rainwater do the effort for getting seeds to sprout, have found tap water to be pretty bad at doing that but with the way the balcony is these planter racks wont get much water anyway so tap water it is.

I also setup a thermometer on the planter racks it was 36C in the sun. for comparison inside the house it was only 20C. big difference. I think during spring I may have to attach a shadecloth to the front as like an overhang thing that I can place down during summer just to stop the plants overheating and burning up.

Thank you all for following along on this gardening adventure! I will post more after photos in 3-4 weeks as and if the seeds sprout.

So the pottery planter rack setup is coming along nicely, I have setup 4 terracotta pots on it, and sowed some herb and flower seeds. It is completely the wrong season for sowing the seeds, but so far the weather has been inclement and I think they may survive the frost and cold being that they are off the ground and on a balcony.

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I chose to sow 4 sets of seeds, Coriander, Nasturtiums, Chives and Mint. It is probably the worst season and time other than winter to sow them but oh well. It being autumn here.

For now I am using a spare cactus and succulents potting mix bag as a weight on the bottom of the planter rack, I am really worried about strong wind knocking the planter rack around and maybe spilling the pots. I think in the future I will wire around the rack a little balcony thing to hold the pots in in case of wind.

So I recently decided to increase the amount of plants I could grow on the balcony.

All up I bought 10X 17cm Terracotta pots, 2 sets of Galvanised steel shelving, a heap of herb seeds (all the good ones I hope).

After the delivery there was still daylight so I did some gardening and repotting of the cactus that I already had growing in plastic pots.

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The glazed terracotta pots look very nice and will suit the cactus well I feel

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The replanting went really fast, I used welders gloves and gumboots to avoid the worst of the prickles from the cactus and the fleeing spiders and other creepy crawleys.

I am thinking tomorrow I will start on filling and setting up the terracotta pots for a herb planter rack.