Author: Smokeycastle

Upgrade to balcony garden

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

Delivery of gardening supplies

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).

opened box of garden supplies
10X terracotta 17cm pots with saucers, + some herb seeds

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.

  • Current plastic pots on balcony
  • Current plants on balcony
  • Empty pots awaiting a use

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

  • Terracotta glazed pots for replanting Cacti
  • Terracotta glazed pots for replanting Cacti further view
  • Anchoring for Galvanised steel planter rack/shelves
  • Galvanised Steel shelving for putting the terracotta pots on
  • Anchoring for Galvanised steel planter rack/shelves 2
  • Replanting the San Pedro Cactus
  • Replanting the San Pedro Cactus 2
  • Replanting the San Pedro Cactus
  • A couple chillie plants sprouted while I was not looking
  • More spare San Pedro Cacti, going to give them away if I can.
  • Cacti replanted and watered
  • Even more spare Cacti
Remember to always wear safe footwear and gloves when handling pots that have been outside for a while, usually there are spiders hiding in around the handles and disturbing the pots makes them freak and run around everywhere.

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.

Homegrown chillies

I am a somewhat avid gardener, I only garden on my balcony though and have had some success growing things like Butternut pumpkin, Sage, Broad beans and Mexican hot chillies.

First season
Second season second year
The plants that produced all the chillies

One thing that surprised me is that the chilie plants lasted a good 2-3 years before they became to old to produce chilies and the frost here finally claimed them.

Amazing photo

Took this photo as we were heading back from a BBQ at nara peace park near civic in canberra probably the most colorful sunset I have seen. many thanks to Thien as without his help this photo would not have been possible.

Sunset over Burley griffin lake, Canberra Australia

Trying to recreate a flavor!

So I recently tried to recreate a flavor of a particularly well liked burger from a particular burger store.

it was according to the internet a simple recipe:

beef with garlic flakes and white pepper

sliced and browned sesame seed bun

Pickles tomato sauce and american mustard raw white onions sliced and american cheese.

The finished burg
Deconstructed burg

Tasted really good, but not as similar to the real thing as I would have liked. and after all the ingredients were calc’d in it was as expensive if not more expensive than just buying it from the store which surprised me.

Art!

Art and myself have had a long distant history, I have always admired and liked the art done by others but rarely do I feel inspired to do my own art rather relying on other methods to placate the creative urges.

Sometimes though I have a little twinge that says do art.

Artistic!

My gaming Hobby

So I have been having a blast playing Wurm online, it pairs really well with eve online and Runescape. Basically setup Eve online on one screen and Wurm online on the other and switch between them depending on which one has the more interesting content at the time. Runescape as a third game to play when I am worn out from playing the other two.

Starting out in wurm
Starting a deed in Wurm online

I play on the North Freedom Isles cluster on one of the PvE isles. The deed I am on is shared between 3 or 4 people and we all do tasks together such as road building, Guard tower raising and other things such as digging and surface mining.

I also pick grapes and harvest maple sap and turn the both into wonderful wine to drink and give those long timer affinity’s that make learning skills easier.

Wurm online recently was released on steam and even though I had previously played the game I had not gotten into it, this time I certainly have and have been having a great time.

The North freedom isles server cluster is a fresh cluster that was released around the time of the steam launch so if you are thinking of trying the game out now is a great time to do so.

Growing vegetables on a balcony in pots

Smokeycastle grows some Vegetables

Gardening is a pastime that I have always enjoyed. I live in a unit so I do not have much space to garden but my balcony gets a lot of sun and is great for growing plants in pots.

As you can see I have a number of plants growing from pots here and am decently happy with the outcome of my spring planting. From left to right I have a 1 million scoville chili, A tomato plant, A honeydew melon vine (that also has baby chili plants in it, A pumpkin plant that also has two chili plants growing in it. The last pot has a succulent that grows year round that I have had for a couple of years now that even survived a house move too!

I have been growing plants on balcony’s for the last 6 years and have had decent success with the best harvest being chili plants. I have grown brassicas, herbs and broad beans to varying success previously.

I am thinking that I will during summer maybe invest in buying a solar powered water pump and build my own hydroponic vertical column. It remains to be seen if the plants in that will survive being that they will only get water during the brighter days. I have never done hydroponic setup and am looking forward to the challenge. With vertical hydroponic setups you can get a surprising amount of plants growing in a small amount of space, and being in Australia getting enough sun is not an issue. hopefully even though Canberra winters are cold I should still be able to grow year round with that setup. Currently I use the winter months to recondition the soil in the pots and to make a compost from the household scraps.