Annefia's Balcony

June, so far

2010-06-11T19:33:00.000+02:00

Long time no see, huh? I've actually done a lot with the balcony since I updated the last time and I've even taken photos of it. I've just been really lazy with updates (or busy with other stuff etc)

First of all I've re-planted all the geraniums/pelargoner that had spent the winter duct taped to my kitchen window sill (remember the itty, bitty, kitty monster that moved in to my home last fall? Duct tape is now a vital part of my interior decorations. LOL) Most of them had survived the winter. Some needed to be cut down a bit since they were way too tall and gangly but in general I preferred to keep them as big as possible this year.

Look at some of my re-homed geraniums/pelargoner waiting to be placed….

…on the window sill.

More re-planted geraniums
(and an innocent cat tail, this isn't the itty bitty one)

Pay special attention the foliage color of the one in the pink pot

Two days in the bright sun made the foliage change color
(it's not dry or burnt or anything like that)

I've also gotten some new plants form my mom, like a "pure bred" strawberry named Sonata (that's supposed to taste much sweeter than the berries from my other plant use to do), some Sweet Peas/Luktärtor and a little pot with Chard/Mangold seedlings. The sweet peas ended up in the flower boxes with all the other odd plants I've got there but the chard babies were too small to re-plant yet (And I promise, no chard will end up in my flower boxes. LOL)

The Sonata Strawberry and baby Chard/Mangold to the left

My old strawberry plant

Wild strawberry/Smultron

My next project was to turn the plant box in to a vegetable patch. Since it doesn't have a real bottom I've decided to grow things in pots instead of filling it up with soil but I've tied up the lid and started to plant some seeds. So far I've planted some lettuce/sallad (Garden rocket/Ruccola, my absolute favorite) and radishes/rädisor. (I've also got some pea seedlings, the chard and the Sonata strawberry in the plant box).

I'm particularly proud of and curious about the radishes since they've got a history of their own. Last year I've planted ordinary store bought radish seeds but for some reason they didn't grow their usual bulb like roots, instead the plants focused on foliage, flowers and seeds. I saved the seeds last fall and this season I've sown them and now I'm really curious to see what will happen. Will I get thick red roots or fruits like klast year? (the fruits are eatable and quite yummy as well)

The corner with my plant box/vegetable patch

I've sown radishes in the round pot, lettuce in the
rectangular pot and peas in the cut off milk cartons.

And finally some photos of my Petunias and flower boxes

I looove the scent of Sweet Alison/Strandkrassing

The lavender petunia that didn't have any flowers earlier

A rose, not a petunia LOL

Very strange petunia!

Hap-pea birthday to the blog!!!

2010-05-30T23:44:00.002+02:00

Today has been the blogs 1 year birthday! Yay! Congrats little blog! It's been a really fun adventure so far. Blogging about the balcony inspires me to make it even better and more beautiful and it also gives me an opportunity to actually use all those photos that I take. LOL I also look forward very much to look back on last summer and reading the old entries, month for month to compare with this year.

May 2009 (click here!)
This year I'm a little bit earlier with some things (I've planted thing a couple of days earlier this year and I also bought the petunias earlier than last year for instance) and I'm a bit late with other things, like sowing the peas.

It's been a trickier to sow things indoors this spring since the "itty bitty monster kitty" moved in her last fall and turned the life upside-down fore me, the older cats and my poor, poor plants (she didn't just turn the plants' lives upside-down, she loves to turn the actual plants upside-down as well. LOL)

Anyway, tonight I've sown some pre-sprouted peas directly in the flower boxes. The dirt might still a bit too cold for them so I'm pre-sprouting another batch (in wet paper) to sow later or indoors if needed.

Sprouted peas, waiting to fulfill this destiny

To summon this birthday entry up I'm looking forward to yet another summer with my beloved balcony and yet another summer with my blog. I this will be a really good year! (If I could wish for one thing though it would be a little bit more comments and interactions with the readers in the blog and maybe some other balcony blogs to follow myself.)

Sooooo many colors!

2010-05-29T23:23:00.000+02:00

I must admit it, the vivid mix of colors have made me a little bit nervous. Have I taken it too far? Will it look too messy? Pale pinks petunias combined with the pale blue trailing lobelias WOULD be more my style. It's not that I don't like the colors, of course I do, I've bought them myself, it's the amount of them that had me worried.

But after enjoying a cup of tea on the balcony today and finally taking in the entire look I've decided that I like things the way they are. It makes me happy! And besides, it's the just balcony, should I grow tired of all the colors I can just go back to more subtle pastels next summer.

This is one of the colors I've worried about the most. It's a little
bit too red for my taste (it looked more pinkish when I bought it)

This one I love though

And this one as well, obviously

This color is a lot darker IRL, more like the bud you can see to the left

And this is probably the most unique of the colors

This one is hard to take photos of, it's bluer and darker IRL. Classic Petunia purple

And this is a bit warmer, more coral IRL

Me likes! Nothing worrying about white. LOL

Ooops, badly over exposed It's darker IRL

This is a better photo of the same flower

The 10th Petunia (to the right in the box above) is a wonderful, pale lavender plant but it doesn't have any flowers right now.

Tea on the balcony

My view from the chair

It's a rare treat to be able to drink tea on the balcony in the middle of the day. When it's sunny it's usually WAY too hot to stay more than a few minutes once the sun has reached around the house (the balcony is facing west and gets loads of sun) And what's worse, since there's a pizza place downstairs the customers and the owners love to smoke below my balcony (you're not allowed to smoke inside restaurants and public places in Sweden) and because of my asthma that always forces me indoors. Arrrghhhhh!!!!!

Today was a lovely day though, the temperature was just right and the smokers left me alone for a long time. After a while the sun disappeared behind dark clouds though and shortly I've I'd went back in it started to hail

Big Planting Day

2010-05-29T22:48:00.000+02:00

Yesterday was what I use to call "The Big Planting Day" when I planted the flower boxes.

I planted:

Runner Beans (Rosenbönor)
Morning Glory (Blomman för dagen)
Petunias (Petunior)
Trailing Lobelias (Hänglobelior)
Sweet Alison (Strandkrassing)

(The later not in the flower boxes though)

The "corner" flower box

The box to the right of the table

The one closest to my chair

The last Petunia and the lovely honey scented Sweet Alison (Strandkrassing)

Oh nooo, my pretty floor is dirty!!!! (Don't worry, I've cleaned it up by now. LOL
I just needed to wait for the dirt to dry first to avoid creating a worse mess)

The corner

Little old lady flowers

2010-05-28T23:53:00.007+02:00

Look what I bought yesterday!!! Dirt! Now I can plant more flowers again.

I also bought some more plants - OF COURSE!!! LOL

Petunias and Sweet Alison (Strandkrassing)

Even more Petunias!!!

Petunias???!!! Again???!!! To quote what I wrote last year on this subject:

Since I'm a year older now I of course had to buy even MORE petunias this year (10 of them instead of four *blushes*) Well, what can I say, I loved the ones I had last year and they had some really nice colors at the garden center (Eeek! I even fell for one of those bluish purple ones this year. I'm sooo old! LOL) I wish they had more of the different pale pink ones I had last year though.

The one to the left is the same color as one I had last year

And I found this to be a really interesting color

Since I chose such a huge mix of petunia colors this year I decided to tie the colors together with just pale blue Trailing Lobelias (Hänglobelior) instead of using mixed colors. (They were my favorites last summer) I'm already MUCH more color crazy than I use to be and I feel that I need a bit of calmness as well in the color palette.

A curious visitor

Mommy's little sweetheart!!! (she's meowing here)

The "pink" tulip

The second tulip bud. I wonder if it will open?

My Forget-me-nots (Förgätmigejer)

The photo above is a sample of the "guerilla gardening" I told you about earlier. The photo si taken from my bedroom window (which is a little bit more difficult than my old camera can cope with) . Isn't it a lovely flowerbed? It's "owned" by my balcony neighbor (the lady on the other side of the wall) and she keeps increasing it bigger every year.

Happy Birthday to me!!!

2010-05-26T23:09:00.000+02:00

Yesterday was my birthday and I got some plants for the balcony (amongst other things) and since my mom was here she also helped me with some of the planting. Not the beans though since we ran out of soil.

I got a wonderful white rose (and a pot for it as well)

Isn't it beautiful?

I also got some Morning Glory (Blomman för dagen) plants

The beans really need to be replanted soon

The tomatoes are liking their new "home though"
(the poor pansies got quite messed up by the thunder storm)

This is how the corner looks now

And just because...
Some less overexposed wilds strawberry (smultron) flowers. LOL

It's kind of fun, when we were done I started to feel like the balcony was staring to get back to its lush self again. Now it almost looked like it did last summer (minus the bean walls). Then later yesterday I happened to look at a post from September last year and I had to take back everything I'd said before. Just look at the photos of the corner!!! There's a long way to go before the balcony looks like it did last year, don't you think? LOL On the other hand it IS just May and still spring so that's only natural.

Thunder!!!!!

2010-05-23T23:38:00.000+02:00

Today we've had the first thunderstorm of the year. It was really intense (especially the rain) but luckily it was very short as well.

When the rain and thunder had passed it became really windy and cold. Originally I had planned to plant the beans today but considering the weather I'm glad they stayed on the floor since they're usually a bit sensitive to heavy rain and heavy winds when re-planted. But maybe tomorrow if the weather and my heath permits it?

Heavy, heavy rain! The road outside looked like river and I got soaking wet
while taking this photo for you. (The roof just wasn't enough protection)

It was quite fascinating to see the edge of the clouds and
the sunny sky behind it when the thunderstorm was passing.

The rain knocked over the poor beans a bit…

...before I could move them in to safety

I love photos water drops of flowers

The pansies on the windowsill remained dry though

Look! Wild strawberry flowers! I know, over exposed and blurry,
but I just wanted to get inside to dry up.

Close up of the primula

Yesterday's news

2010-05-23T23:19:00.000+02:00

Well, technically the photos are from two days before yesterday even but that didn't sound as catchy as a title for the pots. LOL

I've decorated the wreath with some new, turquoise flowers to got better with the candle

It looks quite good, don't you think?

The Runner beans (Rosenbönor) keeps on growing

I'm looking forward to us them to cowering up the trellises,
especially the one facing the neighbor

Getting tired of this tree yet? LOL

The Bleeding Heart & Forget-me-nots (Lötjnantshjärta & Förgätmigej) keeps on growing as well

And look, wild strawberry (smultron) buds

And the "pink" tulip is getting bigger too

I soooo love this violet

Yellow Pears and Black Cherries

2010-05-20T15:14:00.010+02:00

This week I've bought my tomato plants. I really loved the Yellow Pear tomato from last season. The plant gave an abundance of wonderfully tasting tomatoes and I really wanted a similar plant this year. I also want a smaller plant with cherry tomatoes. Last year I grew the red Tiny Tim but this year I decide to go with the blackish red Black Cherry that I've never tried before. Now I'm just keeping my fingers crossed that it will be a good summer for tomatoes!

Yellow Pear (to the left) & Black Cherry

I haven't planted the tomatoes yet though since I'm waiting for a large enough pot for the Yellow Pear plant. I don't know what I was thinking last year when I planted bulbs in my tomato pot? LOL

Yellow Tulip instead of Yellow Pear

But wait a minute! YELLOW tulip???????????? I remember very well that I planted PINK tulips.

Badly overexposed photo (from last fall) but still PINK

Well, at least it's an absolutely wonderful shade of pale yellow, bordering to lime green, that I love a lot (I'm not that fond of bright and bold yellows) It also goes very well with my new floor and with the new color scheme on the balcony so I'm not too disappointed, just surprised.

White Runner bean (Rosenbönor) seedlings

Yesterday I moved my baby runner beans from the kitchen window (BEHIND the geraniums (pelargoner) well hidden from my too curious flower eating itty bitty, monster kitty) to the balcony. They look really healthy and strong this year.

I know, I know, last summer I wondered for a while if I should really grow runner beans this summer since I didn't felt they grew fast enough to give me the protective green walls that I wanted, as fast as I wanted. But they made up for it by the end of the summer and looove the taste of the beans (Yum, yum, yum!) so I decided to give them a chance this year as well.

This year I will have more plants though (last summer gave lots of beans which mean that I've lost of seeds this season) and I will start giving them fertilizing straight away. Hopefully this will help them to grow thick green walls to protect me from the strong sun and prying neighbour eyes.

Rescued birdie!

I often see people show off their great "dumpster diving" finds in their blogs. I've never done much dumpster diving myself before but now I have my first dumpster diving find. It didn't involve any diving though since he was standing on the lid (and technically it was my mom that did the actual "non-diving" since I had my hands full of tomato plants) but I felt I just had to rescue the poor thing and now he lives on my balcony.

Another find this week was a new turquoise candle instead of the pink one
(this one I paid for though LOL)

The table area, with the new bird and the new candle.

The Bleeding Heart & Forget-me-nots (Lötjnantshjärta & Förgätmigej)

Viola odorata 'freckles' now in bloom

And now some photos of the "bonus garden". (If you're new to the blog, the bonus garden refers to the surrounding trees and flower beds and "guerilla gardening" = elderly people that create their own gardens on the lawn.) Usually the elder generations living her take a better care of the surroundings than the landlord company (that usually just take care of the lawns but is nice enough not to mind the guerilla gardening)

The poor bonus flower bed is in dire need of a weeding now!

I don't know who's responsible for it though, the landlord of the pizza guys (the stairs is the entry way to a pizzeria on the bottom floor). I hope some of the guerilla gardeners will take care of it soon though (I don't have the health to do it myself, otherwise I probably would sneak out one night and weed it since I love weeding. Yes, I know I'm strange LOL)

Half of the bonus roses froze to death this winter and my elderly neighbor that used to tend to the roses has moved so I don't know what will happen to them now (they're the landlord's responsibility)

More photos of the baby trees planted when they finished rebuilding the road outside.
Yes I love trees, can you tell? LOL

The view!

(The truck you can see belongs to the man from the landlord company mowing the lawn, which is why some photos above show a wild grown lawn full of dandelions and others look more neat)

More catching up - May 15th

2010-05-20T03:13:00.000+02:00

I've bought some new pots to go with the more colorful style

I turned out quite pretty, don't you think?

The primula is in full bloom now

I like how all the pot colors look with the flower colors

A pot with strawberries (jordgubbar) and wild strawberries (smultron)

An another one with the violet and the chives (gräslök). Talk about odd mix! LOL

Close up of the freckled little violet bud

I also bought a plastic "basket" to us use storage for pots etc.
I decided to go for green to make it blend in with the floor

Look tulip buds!

This poor tulip forgot to grow a stem though. LOL

The bleeding heart (löjtnantshjärta) has some buds too

I decided to add a wind chime to the balcony this year.
I only wish I had a better place to hang it

The table area

The view

Catching up - May 5th

2010-05-20T02:30:00.000+02:00

I'm waaaaay behind with my photos so I've got a lot of catching up to do. We're starting with some photos from May 5th.

Look, look! New fabric!!!

Much better than the old sun bleached, dirty fabric, don't you think? LOL And as I mentioned before, the new rugs called for some stronger colors this season.

I also got some new plants from my mom's garden, like new strawberries and wild strawberries (smultron) since mine didn't survive the winter. I also got a primula, a pot with bleeding heart (löjtnantshjärta) & Forget-me-not (Förgätmigej) and a plant of my beloved freckled violet.

New plants!

The primula already had some buds

The tulips, the chive (gräslök) and dead parsley.

Pretty pansy (pensé)

Pretty pansy (pensé)

Pretty pansy (pensé)

Close up of one of the butterflies in the pansy flower pot

and of the other one as well

The bonus flower bed below my balcony (it needs some weeding)

Baby trees with baby leaves

This tree didn't have any leaves yet though

Looking pretty! Oh so pretty!

2010-05-09T01:36:00.000+02:00

One of the things I've never liked with my balcony before has been the floor. It's a hard, cold concrete floor with ugly, flaking paint. Yuck! But since my stepfather had promised (several times over years now) to give me a wooden floor I haven't done much about it myself. But well, he's the kind of guy that keeps forgetting things like this and he REALLY doesn't like to be reminded so this year I decided to solve things myself instead. A wooden floor was out of the question (it required too much money and too much work) but instead I bought some new, fresh (and matching!!!) plastic rugs for the floor and it's looking so nice now. Love it!!!!

They're green though, very green, which makes the pale pinks I've used before look too pale and washed out so I need to spice up the colors a bit on the balcony this summer.

Before!

The pieces of fabric I've used to block the view looks absolutely awful. They're both VERY sun bleached and dirty. Can you imagine that the top on used to look like the background I'm using for the blog? (It was actually the inspiration for the blog layout) And the colors that now looks kind of gray were pink and green last spring

After! MUCH better!

I've moved the plant box to the area I use to call "the corner".

And look and the chives/gräslök and tulips/tulpaner growing!

I have replaced those really bleached and dirty draperies by now (photos will come another day) but I still need to find new fabric for the chair and a new oilcloth for the table in more appropriate colors. And yes, I DO plan to add more plants as well, but it's still too early in the season for most plants.

Spring on the balcony!

2010-05-07T15:58:00.008+02:00

I promised you some spring photos and I usually DO keep my promises so here are the first ones (there will be more recent ones as well later).

Remember the spring flower bulbs I planted last fall? It was soo exciting when the first life started to show up in the flower pot. Looking for the first spring flowers is something I really miss from my old garden. I wasn't sure anything would survive this harsh winter but at least some of the bulbs did. Yay!

Look!!!

Growing bigger

To me it looks like these are just the tulips which mean that sadly the grape hyacinths/pärlhyacinter and crocuses/krokusar didn't make it. (I'm not sure yet about the Narcissuses/Påskliljorna yet.) I guess I'll have to protect them a bit better from the cold next season (but most likely next winter will not be as rough since the last one was usually cold and snowy for this part of Sweden).

The winter was really hard on the poor plants in the plant box too. The poor
strawberries/jordgubbar and wild strawberries/smultron don't look too happy

But look!!! The chive/gräslök is still alive! And MAYBE the parsley/persilja too.

A couple of days later!

I've bought some lovely Pansies/Penséer this spring (way more than I should but I could resist theses colors)

Note the butterflies!

And look! No more snow!!! Yay!!!

Winter on the balcony!

2010-05-03T19:02:00.000+02:00

I thought I should start off with showing you some winter photos, just to show you how much snow we've actually had. And keep in mind that I've got a roof on my balcony, it would have been A LOT more snow otherwise (as if this wasn't enough? LOL)

Remember all the nice heathers/ljung I got last fall to have something pretty to look at on the balcony during the winter? Talk about wasted money! LMAO

Before

After!!!

Before

After!!!
(This photo is taken standing indoors going outside wasn't an option. LOL)

The plant box, before
(You'll get bonus points if you can guess what the tall black thing is)

And after!

The strawberries, in December, BEFORE the massive amount of snow and fierce cold came. They were still doing fine then. Now? Well... no so much!

We hadn't gotten that much snow yet here...

...but we got more...

...and more...

...and more...

... and MORE!!!

This used to be the bonus flower bed below my balcony

And this is a poor, icy cold Rhododendron (they don't lose their
leaves in the fall, instead they curl them up when they're freezing)

This is a flower pot, in a huge milk can, on a table, under a pile of snow. See
that smaller snowdrift in the background to the left? That used to be my car!!!

I know, I know, cars are a bit off topic but since you can hardly tell
that this actually IS a car I thought it would be okay anyway. LOL

And no, it's NOT an SUV, it just looks that way. LOL

In case you wonder, since I've got a disease (ME/CFS) that gets a lot worse during the winter I hardly use my car even during good winters.

And yes, it actually started again (the battery had been removed during the winter to keep it from getting ruined) and it's working just fine again now. (It's doing MUCH better than the strawberries. LOL)

Okay, okay, I promise, enough of cars and snow now! LOL Next time I'll show some more recent SPRING photos instead.

Welcome back!!!

2010-04-28T14:43:00.002+02:00

It's been a long and VERY snowy winter but finally the spring is here and it's time to start up again, both with the blogging and with a new balcony season. Yay!!!

I will return later with some photos. I just need to recharge my camera batteries AGAIN. Meanwhile I'll see if I can finish some new "curtains" for the gap in the railing. The old fabrics have faded to almost white and there's also a slight color change to expect on the balcony (I'm saying SLIGHT here, there will still be lots of pink, I'm still ME after all. LOL)

But for now I just want to wish you all welcome back to the blog again!!! (And don't forget to comment to keep my blogging motivation on top. LOL)

All Hallows' Eve

2009-10-31T01:06:00.004+01:00

Here in Sweden we celebrate All Hallows' Eve (Allhelgonaafton). This is a much more serene and solemn holiday than Halloween where we light candles on our loves one's grave to honor and remember them.

These days I'm living too far away from my graves to visit them so I've lit a "grave candle" on my balcony instead.

This is for all my lost loved ones but especially for my grandmother and my three cats Ronja, Viran and especially Bissen that I lost this year. I love you all!!! Jag älskar er!

Grape Hyacinths and Heather

2009-10-29T20:16:00.004+01:00

Remember the sun I talked about in my last entry? It disappeared behind the trees after 5-10 minutes. As I said, we don't get much daylight in Sweden at this time of the year (and it will get worse in November and December)

Anyway, a couple of days after I'd planted the bulbs I got some Grape Hyacinth/Pärlhyacint bulbs as well. I would love to get some Snowdrops/Snödroppar as well since they're the first spring flowers to come (literary when there's still snow left) but they seem to be sold out.

Guess what I found after lifting away the moss from my bulbs?

The crocuses had already started to grow!!!!!

Now the crocuses are well hidden under more earth and moss along with loads of Grape Hyacinth bulbs though.

Grape Hyacinths/Pärlhyacinter
(The Swedish names means Pearl Hyacinth BTW)

I will come up with a way to insulate the pot a bit as well later. The gray insulation foam sheet in the background is for the plant box though.

I've also added some more heather to the flower boxes and put together some pots for the corner. I'm really happy with how the balcony looks now.

The corner

Spruce and two kinds of heather

Everything is still alive in the plant box so far...

The poor itty, bitty kitty monster missed her mommy!
(She's standing on the indoors window sill looking out)

I long for spring!

2009-10-29T15:04:00.001+01:00

This is pretty much as much daylight as we get at this time of year. Is there any wonder why I long for spring????

But even it the darkest, dullest autumn you can still plan ahead for the spring and that's what I did when I finally planted my pot of spring bulbs last week.

First I started with six Narcissus bulbs (I know three
will be white but the other three will be a surprise)

Mommy's little helper, a.k.a. the itty bitty tiny kitty monster

After the narcissuses I added some more earth and then some tulip bulbs

This is how they will look (a little less overexposed IRL hopefully LOL)

I'd bought a paper screw full of crocus bulbs (surprise colors this time too)

They followed next after a new layer of earth.

Unfortunately I didn't have enough earth to cover
them up properly so I used some moss instead.

I've gotten some more bulbs and some more earth since (as well as more heather) but I'm saving that for another post, the sun is actually shining though the clouds right now *faint* so I want to enjoy it before it sets behind the trees.

Radish seeds!

2009-10-27T19:21:00.003+01:00

I just wanted to show you the result of the strange radish fruits I got this year, seeds for next spring!!! (Hopefully I will actually get some radishes then as well. LOL)

The dried fruits

The seeds (with some dry husk flakes still left in *ooops*)

This show a little but better how much I got, it's more than it looks though.

Heather!

2009-10-17T01:15:00.005+02:00

Yay! Finally the balcony looks pretty again! Less lush and jungle like than during the summer but beautiful with a fall theme. I've cleaned everything away (with a little help from my mom since my pain's been worse lately) and filled up with Heather, moss, pine and spruce.

I'm not quite done yet though. I'm waiting for some more Heather, spruce and pine and I will rearrange some things, decorate a bit more and maybe or maybe not sew a new "curtain" since the old one is pretty bleached and not very fall/winter themed. But I'm really happy with the changes and finally I don't have to feel embarrassed when new people visit the blog and all the see is this withered, sad photos. LOL (Even more imortant, I have a beautiful bacony for myself to look at as well)

Heather/Ljung, Pine/Tall and Spruce/Gran

The plant boxes are also filled with moss instead of soil.
I looooove the smell of moss!

I started off with two Heather plants in each plant box.

I've made an arrangement with a baby pine, moss,
lingonberry twigs, stones and some heather twigs.

Overview of the table area

Pretty fall colors!

The next day I found more exotic Heather in blue...

... and purple.

A new overview, the next day

I plan to move one of the more exotic looking Heathers to one of the big flower pots along with some more pine and spruce and I might also hang some Heather one the wall.

I've also bought different kind of spring onions and bulbs that I plan to plant in the other big pot to see if I can get them to grow in the spring. I forgot to take photos of though those but I will when I plant them.

And finally I've opened up the Runner Bean pods to reveal the actual beans that I will dry and use next season. Not ALL of them though, it too only 12 plants to create the jungle I had this summer.

Beans! Plenty of beans!

As you can see white Runner Beans only get plain white beans but I also had some flower revert/mutate back to the more common orange color and they ended up with traditional, beautiful beans in black and pink. In Swedish Runner Beans are called Rose Beans because if the beautiful colored beans. It's too bad I prefer the flowers of the white plants and the beans of the orange. LOL But they taste the same so I will stick to white plants.

Wild boar wreckings!

2009-10-10T19:32:00.003+02:00

I got a photo from my brother this morning, it's from his neighbor's garden. Yesterday this used to be a nice lawn but last night it got visited (and very much destroyed) by wild boars.

My brothers and his wife already have a net/fence around their garden (that's what makes the photo look checkered) to protect it from deer so luckily they didn't get any four legged vandals on their lawn.

The good thing with being a balcony gardener is that I don't get unwelcome visits from wild boars (or deer or killer slugs). But since my balcony is completely barren right now a couple of wild boars might actually make it a bit more interesting. LOL

Bye bye beans!

2009-10-08T14:43:00.002+02:00

Night frost and fall storms, the runner beans and the tomatoes started to look more dead than alive so I know it HAD to be done. But oh how bare and empty the balcony looks now when all the plants are gone! *sigh*

Empty!!!!

No more Runner Beans

The last photo of the tomatoes

The now barren corner

Harvested radish fruits (I will take care of the seeds later)

The remaining plants have move in to the plant box, strawberries,
wild strawberries, parsley and chives

The view

The view with colorful trees

I wanted to take a better, sunny photo of the trees yesterday but the heavy wind the night before had knocked those leaves to the ground.

Pelargoniums and duct tape

2009-10-08T13:39:00.003+02:00

I'm sure you're all very curious if I succeeded in taping my pelargoniums to my kitchen window sill like I said I would and I can now reassure you that it was a success (the pain that I got from overstraining myself that prevented me from sitting long enough by the computer to update the blog and show you the photos was of course less of a success)

Evening photo with the curtains out of the way

How it really looks

Day time photo

(The plants on the kitchen sofa used to stand in the window but will soon move in to the bedroom)

See the old-fashioned antique cast iron irons (does that sound stupid in English or what? LOL) in the foreground? I didn't duct tape them, they ARE after all made by cast iron and HEAVY so I think they were safe anyway. This morning I woke up to a loud thud though, the itty, bitty, tiny kitty monster had knocked down the smallest one (the plants below survived) But all the pelargoniums were still firmly taped to the window sill. Yay for duct tape!

Night frost and harvest

2009-10-03T18:04:00.002+02:00

Last night we had subzero degrees (-0.9°C = 30.38°F) for the first time this fall! *shiver* Cooooold! (in a couple of months I will consider this warm though)

Look what it did to the poor Runner Beans!

It's really time to take them down now, but since it's really cold, gray and rainy today (see photo above) I'm saving that for another day. I think I'll duct tape the pelargoniums instead. I moved them indoors earlier this week but I just put them temporary on top of a cupboard.

Cat safe pelargoniums!

Now I've gotten the duct tape I needed so now I'll take better care of them, cut away dead flowers and leaves and then tape them to the kitchen window sill. I don't worry that much about what the big cats will do to them but the itty, bitty, tiny kitty monster has already knocked down a bunch of flowers from my window sills so duct tape it is.

I've also harvested the tomatoes and runner beans this week. I doubt the tomatoes will ripen much more outdoors now and that saves me the work of having to tuck them in every night to keep them safe from frost.

Look! A tomato ghost!!!

Harvested tomatoes

Beans

Curious itty, bitty, tiny kitty monster

I got about 1.5kg tomatoes (and I've probably eaten at least 0.5kg before) and about 1kg beans (sheaths included, previous eaten beans not included though). Not bad for a balcony gardener I think!

I'll see how many if the tomatoes that will ripen indoor and then make pickled tomatoes of the rest and I'll undress the beans as well... later. I also need to harvest the radish fruits to collect the seeds. So far I've just moved them so they're not hanging on the other side of the balcony anymore, in case they decide to fall.

Radishes and look a Petunia that's still alive

My balcony is an embarrassing mess right now though. *sigh* I need to get rid of the dead plants, clean up the mess ad get some heather to make things pretty again. So much to do and so little energy to do it with. Times like this I really wish I was healthy.

Messy!

Pretty sunset from earlier this week, the sun is about to set
now as well, but today it's just dull, dark and gray.

Decay - This weekend

2009-09-30T02:36:00.001+02:00

What a difference a week can make! We've had some cold nights, still above freezing according to the thermometer but it wouldn't surprise me if we've had a touch of night frost. The Runner Beans/Rosenbönor didn't like this AT ALL.

We've also had all kind of strange weather combinations, sunshine, rain, windy (to the point where I decided to move down the Pelargoniums to the floor for good), hail, thunder and then some sunshine again (no snow though *phew*)

Poor beans!

The Hydrangea is still looking fine

Look how tall this red pelargonium is!

The radishes

Yummy Yellow Pear tomatoes!

The leaves have started to change color now

The summer season is over on the balcony now. All there's left to do is to clean up, take in the pelargoniums (I just need some duct tape to secure to pots to the window sill, for itty, bitty, tiny cat technical reason, if you know what I mean. LOL) and harvest seeds (beans and radishes) for next year. Because of my medical problems this will still take some time though, I can't do everything in one day, and besides, the beans are still green(ish) so they still block people's view for a little while longer.

And yes, of course I have SOME fall plans as well....

Fall cleaning - Last weekend

2009-09-30T02:12:00.000+02:00

I know, I'm way behind with the updates now but for various reasons I haven't been able to update for a while. These photos are from when I did a bit of fall cleaning/preparing last weekend (Sept 19-20)

The corner

The Deadly Nightshade/Belladonna and the Pansies/Penséer

As you could see some of the plants had started to look ~~REALLY tired~~ nearly dead. I got rid of the Nightshade and the Pansies and cut down most of the Petunias (except few stems that still had flowers)

I also replanted the Strawberries and the Wild Strawberries/smultron since I will try to keep them alive during the winter. I decided not to cut away the baby plants from their mothers until I know they're fully rooted.

I will also replant the chive/gräslök and parsley but I ran out of soil.

Strawberry - Before (Isn't it pretty?)

Strawberries - After

Yellow Pear

Tiny Tim

The tomatoes are still doing well and have actually started to ripen a lot as well, especially Yellow Pear. (Yellow Pear is BTW a very tasty tomato that I can highly recommend. Please remind me to get in next year as well)

The window sill is starting to look quite empty,
but the pelargoniums are still beautiful

Yuuummmmmmmmmm

2009-09-19T00:58:00.004+02:00

Home grown tomatoes are goooooood!!! I wish you could buy tomatoes tasting like this in the shops as well, but you really can't (at least not here in Sweden).

I didn't take any photos, I was too busy munching (and besides, it was dark outside) but in case you're curious I can tell you that Tiny Tim tastes quite sweet and Yellow Pear is more spicy. Yummmmmmmm!!!

(I've only eaten one of each so far, but I look forward to the rest)

Look! Pretty colors!!!

2009-09-17T02:18:00.000+02:00

Look!!! Red tomatoes!!! And yellow!!!

Tiny Tim

Yellow Pear

Oddly shaped Yellow Pear

Just as I'd pretty much given up on the tomatoes ripening this year they've started to change colors. Yay!!! Now I LOVE pickled green tomatoes so I don't see it as a problem if all of them don't ripen (which I really doubt they will) but I would be really sad if I wouldn't be able to eat SOME homegrown, ripen tomatoes this summer. They taste sooo much more and sooo much better than the bland, watery store bought ones. (Well, I don't know how THESE tomatoes will taste since I haven't tried them yet but home grown tomatoes in general I mean)

This has been an overall bad year for tomato ripening. Everyone I or my mom have talked to (including people with green houses) have had the same problems. But as long as some of the tomatoes will ripen I'm happy.

Just a photo of the view. They've stopped blowing things up now (that said, they still make a lot of noise)

Early fall on the balcony!

2009-09-12T02:11:00.001+02:00

I have to accept that it's fall now! I just can't pretend it still summer even when its nice and sunny weather. The air is more crisp and the balcony season is nearing it's end. This will (no matter computer problems and kittens) mean that I will eventually update the blog less often. I prefer documenting growth instead of decay! And I even plan to take a looong blog break during the late fall and winter (with maybe a FEW snowy updates or posts about my plans for next summer). But we're not quite there yet... It's fall on the balcony but it's still early fall and even though the plants have started to look more and more tired the balcony is still lush and I still plan to keep on updating (but probably less often than I did during the summer) While decay is less fun to document fall is still a part of the natural seasons on the balcony.

Today I've done some early fall cleaning, I've put the insulation in the plant box and started to cut down dead or withering plants (mostly Petunias). A clean up was very much needed but now the balcony looks good again (if not quite at it's prime any more)

Before I started

This Petunia really didn't look as fun any more

I've put a double layer of insulation on the floor and
along threeof the walls. The back wall only has one layer
since I hope to be able to "borrow" some heat from the wall.

I've also got insulation left to put on top of the box later. It's
standing behind the box for now. I really like the shadow pattern.

A more tidy looking petunia (I saved the part that still had flowers)

The window sill, now with flowers again. I wonder how long that will last?

The table area

The Corner

The Corner taken from the balcony door

My Busy Lizzy/Flitiga Lisa

The newest Pelargonium

Pelargonium

Pelargonium and Petunias

Look!!! One of the Tiny Tim Tomatoes have finally started to blush

The Yellow Pear ones are still as green as always though

The gigantic Runner Bean is even more gigantic now

It's 36 cm long (about 14.4 inches)...

...and 6.5 cm (2.6 inches) wide. Huuuge!!!

The fall has reached the bonus flower bed as well

And finally a photo of the view. They've stopped blowing things up now.

Long time no see!

2009-09-11T20:51:00.001+02:00

It's been a crazy, busy time lately with both computer troubles and a brand new kitten. (Yay for the later!!!) Unfortunately both of them have affected my blogging a bit. I still have some random photos taken during this time that I've thrown together in this post though.

I've gotten this insulation material from my step father the
building constructor,. I plan to use it for the plant box.

Gigantic Runner Bean/Rosenböna

The last week I've had to move down the
pelargoniums twice because of heavy winds.

It look like the season is over for the Petunias
now. I've really liked them though.

And finally a photo new kitten as well, even though she's a bit too small and too fast to visit the balcony this year. LOL She made me forget watering my poor balcony for two entire days. Ooops! LOL

Smulan!

Look what I have gotten!!!!

2009-09-02T01:34:00.000+02:00

A... a... a.... "plant box". (Why oh why am I blogging in English???? LOL) I don't know what it's called in English but it's one of this box thingies that kind of work as a small green house (well, I'm pretty sure you understand what it is when you look at the photo. LOL) In lack of a proper world (feel free to let me know if you know what they're called) it will from now on be called "The Plant Box".

Anyway, I got it as a surprise gift from my brother.

So far it's standing below the window sill (I've removed the electric grill for now, you know the thing covered in a big black plastic bag. LOL) and I'm only using it to store things like pots and soil. But later I will probably placed it in the corner and used as winter storage for my strawberries and some other plants (not the pelargonium of course, they will move indoors) And who knows what kind of little baby seedling that will live there next season.

Guess why I haven't place it in the corner yet? LOL

The trellis and table is still looking very jungle like as well.

Isn't the Mårbacka pelargonium absolutely impressive?

And this is the result of the funny looking pelargonium bud. Pretty!

This one will end up looking like the Mårbacka, only dark.

My Dizzy Lizzy /Flitiga Lisa looks quite impressive as well now

And I love to see how big and healthy the Hydrangea/Hortensia looks
now. I thought I would loose it in the middle of the summer, remember?

Harvested Runner Beans/Rosenbönor (and there's still plenty left)

Just a pelargonium bud...

2009-08-28T15:23:00.002+02:00

This fall is coming closer and closer to my dear balcony. :o( Plants have started to become a bit "overgrow" and some has started to look a bit tired now. Soon the balcony season will be over for this year and there isn't as much progress to take photos of any more. This makes me feel a bit sad and melancholic but then it's a good thing that I've still got some pelargonium buds to follow. Especially when they look this cute and funny! LOL

It's a jungle UP there!

2009-08-28T02:21:00.001+02:00

Remember that I complained that my balcony looked boring from the outside? That's no longer true! Now it's jungle-ness is shown from the outside as well. And anything less than gorgeous on these photos is caused by the ~~photographer~~ really old camera. LOL

It's still looking even better from the inside though

Look at all those Runner Beans!!!! I've gotten plenty of beans this year! But to be honest there's less of them now then there were earlier today. Yummmmm!!! LOL

I've gotten plenty of Tomatoes as well, but they're still green and unripe. It seems like everybody's having a hard time getting their tomatoes to ripen this summer, EVEN my mom's neighbor Irja (she's one of those people that's part garden faerie, every inch of her garden is about 100 times more jungle-like than my balcony)

Tomato - Yellow Pear

Tomato - Yellow Pear

Tomato - Tiny Tim

The Sweet Pea Mystery

2009-08-26T01:47:00.000+02:00

Sweet Peas/Luktärtor (and more)

Me and my mom shared a bag of Sweet Pea seeds this season but for some strange reason 95% of my Sweet Peas are scarlet colored and 95% of my mom's Sweat Peas are lavender. I've gotten ONE single lavender colored Sweet Pea, one orangey red and two white ones (the purple/lavender/pink thing seen in the background on the photo is a Petunia) This really makes me wonder what decides the color of Sweet Peas. Did my mom grab all the lavender Sweet Pea seeds before handing the rest over to me? (and in that case, how's that even possible?) Does the soil with different nutrition, minerals etc decide the color? And what on earth has happened to all the Sweet Peas that aren't scarlet or lavender? The usually come in huge variation of colors.

Well, no mater the color, the still smell heavenly. I combine them with pale blue hanging lobelias every now and then, just big enough bouquets to bring in the fragrance

And yes, I know the photo above sucks. The flowers are growing on the outside of the balcony and it's not easy leaning out to take photos, especially not when you're short and you're blocked buy huge tomato plants. LOL

Strawberry

Isn't this strawberry plant impressive? This one never got any berries this year, instead it focused on growing baby plants.

In the jungle, the mighty jungle...

2009-08-25T01:58:00.000+02:00

...the lions sleep tonight

It's just that my "lions" hardly sleep when they get to visit the jungle for a little while. LOL

(Late evening = flash photos again)

*nom* *nom* Flowers!!! Yummy!

*sniff* Something smells very *sniff* interesting tonight *sniff*

Sleeping lions or not, it's still a jungle

It took longer than expected this year but now the trellises are covered

And all the pelargoniums are full of flowers

I really like how this one turned out (and the leaves, the leaves!)

And a multicolored one!!! (or two plants cheating LOL)

A bud on one of my newest pelargoniums

Same here, just bigger buds

The Hydrangea have recovered completely now. It likes the cooler weather

Tomatoes - Tiny Tim

Tomatoes - Yellow Pear

I wonder if we'll get enough sun and warmth for the tomatoes to ripen? It always a bit uncertain when you don't grow your tomatoes in a green house. But I DO get plenty of sun on the balcony as long as the weather is good.

BTW, can you see the nice and colorful gift wrapping ribbons? LOL

This, if you ask me, was a WAY too small portion of
Runner Beans/Rosenbönor. They're gooooood!

Last year I barely got enough beans to produce seeds for next season but this year there's plenty to both eat and save as seeds.

And don't worry, the pan in question IS clean, it's just very old, like most my stuff (the white residue on the edge is just salt)

Rearranging things a bit

2009-08-20T23:36:00.001+02:00

It's been windy all week now, not quiet as much as on the Sunday but enough to knock over the tallest pelargoniums as soon as I put them back up on the window sill. Yesterday I got tired of keeping them on the floor so I decided to rearrange things a bit. Now, the Mårbacka pelargonium and the tall red one are standing on the tablee instead, all safely tied to the trellis and I'm only keeping shorter plants on the window sill = no more windy accidents so far.

I've also had to tie up the tomatoes even more from all kind of angles (since the winds is coming from the south this time which it usually doesn't) I think they too will be okay now though.

The window sill afterwards

The tall pelargoniums safely tied to the trellis

Pelargonium close up

This one is the tallest pelargonium on the window sill
now and gets to stand in the most protected corner.

Looking at the Runner Beans/rosenbönor!!!
(the grapes are plastic though LOL)

This one will be way too big to eat but great to use for seeds for next summer.

The balcony is soooo lush now, it's just hard to capture on photo.

Latest radish news!

2009-08-20T01:27:00.000+02:00

I thought I should let you know how the radishes were SUPPOSED to look. Just you average, basic, normal radish. They only difference is that they were supposed to be a little bit more white then usual.

As we all know now, this is NOT how they turned out at all. LOL

After a bit of googling I've discovered that you CAN eat the fruits from overgrown radishes though (and they actually taste quite good) Some people even grow them for their "fruits" instead of their roots. but they usually uses seeds from brands that's supposed to get overgrown (which mine weren't)

But even though they're tasty I think I'll mainly focus on getting seeds for next season.

My strange radishes!

2009-08-18T03:15:00.003+02:00

Felicity got it right in the end. The strange "fruits" I showed earlier WERE indeed Radish fruits. I've never seen radishes flower before and I've never even HEARD about radish fruits. Obviously they must get some kind of fruits to get seeds but I've never actually seen it happen before or heard of any one else that had either. I guess it's been a good summer for radish fruits and a less good summer for radish roots. LOL

But mom's been growing radishes as well, a different kind than mine, in her green house without the fertilizer I've used and her radishes also grew really tall with itty, bitty tiny roots (even though she didn't get any fruits) so I guess there was nothing I did wrong with these, it's just not a radish year (or perhaps very much a radish year, depending on how you see it LOL)

I will harvest these fruits later to take care of the seeds. I'm really curious to see how they will look on the inside. Will they be fruit or just blown up shells with some seed inside? Next spring I will plant the seeds and of course follow it up in the blog.

(BTW, in case you wonder, the wind didn't damage anything on my balcony yesterday. Phew!)

The flowers my friend are blowing in the wind...

2009-08-16T14:32:00.003+02:00

...the flowers are blowing in the wind

This is what I woke up to this morning! It's "a bit" windy today!!!

The parsley and the two tallest pelargoniums had been knocked down by the wind. Nothing was broken though, neither the long stems or the ceramic parsley pot. In fact both the parsley and the pink Mårbacka Pelargonium were still standing up. Look at the Mårbacka, it's even standing UNDER the chair, to protect it self from other falling plants. It's just peaking out with it's "head" to see if it's safe out there now. I wonder how it's managed to land in a standing position under the chair?????

I've placed all plants (that aren't tied to or entwined with the trellis) on the floor now to be on the safe side. I've also tied up the tomatoes a bit more since it's blowing from the opposite directing than it's used to today (and a lot more as well). I will be going away for the day and I'm actually a bit worried. What if the table blows over and lands on my flowers? What if...?

A photo from yesterday, this is how it's SUPPOSED to look.

The Busy Lizzy/Flitiga Lisa

Ch, ch, ch, changeeeees!!!

2009-08-15T00:49:00.002+02:00

They're not JUST blowing this up, they've actually started to BUILD this as well now. So far it looks like it's going to be some kind of wall/fence.

Petunias in the rain

Don't forget to guess on the strange fruits below! No correct answer has been given yet.

Strange fruits!

2009-08-14T02:38:00.001+02:00

No silly! These are bonus roses, they're neither fruits nor strange. LOL

And these are the new Pelargoniums I got today (the two left ones)

They're neither fruit nor strange...

...just pretty

Now we're getting somewhere though! Tomatoes ARE actually considered fruits and I guess that, as fruits, they're a bit strange compared to apples and pears, but not strange enough. LOL

Some of them are very small, but that's not strange enough

And some of them are fuzzy (???) and have strange shapes...

... but even that isn't enough

There's also A LOT of them, but we're talking strange fruits...

... not strange AMOUNTS of fruits

These are the strange ones though!!! Care to guess what they are???

Have your ever seen anything like this before?

There's a lot of these as well!

I WILL of course reveal their identity another day if you can't guess. LOL

Midnight at the balcony

2009-08-11T02:36:00.003+02:00

It's been really warm and humid lately and I'm also been a bit busy during the days (which you might have guessed based on the lack of updates) so I've gotten in to the habit to water the balcony at night time. I've also done a bit of maintenance work tonight, you know, sweeping the floor, throwing away the pot of radishes (all loooong stems, leaves and no actually radishes to eat) and things like this. A little bit tricky in the dark I must say. LOL

I thought it would be fun to show you a bit of my balcony at night time. Keep in mind though that this affects the image quality, the photos are dark, a bit "over flashed" and sometimes blurry. It's also very hard to know what I take a picture of since its a lot darker IRL than on the photos (they're lit up by the flash but RL all the light I have comes through my living room window) and I can't see ANYTHING in the camera window. I just had to point the camera in what I thought to be the right direction, hope for the best and push the button. LOL

The Corner

The table area

The big trellis

The window sill

Pelargoniums

Pelargonium

Pelargonium

Pelargoniums on the table

Pelargonium (the one one the floor in the corner)

Flowering Runner Beans/Rosenbönor

They've even started to get some beans

My darling "Duttis" (you haven't seen as much of her)

Look how big the Hydrangea/Hortensia has gotten again

And isn't the strawberry plant beautiful?

See the to shining orbs in the lower rigth corner?

It's "Mipan's" eyes!

The table and the impressive Petunia

Some of the Yellow Pear tomatoes

A new Pelargonium

2009-08-06T02:32:00.002+02:00

They started blowing up thing at 08.15 this morning. Niiiiiice! LOL Today's blast were bigger than yesterday's but I had my mom visiting so I didn't manage to get out on the balcony in time to take more explosives photos for you.

The lack of dust cloud photos was well compensated by the fact that my mom brought me a wonderful, white, double pelargonium though.

Isn't it gorgeous?

I've put it on the table so far. It's quite tall so I might have to tie it to the trellis before it gets windy but since the balcony had reached the temperature of a baking oven today all I could do was to quickly put it down, take a few fast photos and rush back in again. I'll see what I can do but it before the sun reaches the balcony tomorrow.

This is a photo of the corner seen from the balcony door because my mom thought this view was particular impressive, Actually, my entire balcony is a quite impressive jungle right now. It's just hard to capture it with the camera. But it's never looked this good before and it also smells lovely of Sweet Pea and the fragrant miniature Petunia. I just LOVE my balcony (even though I prefer it when it's less baking oven temperatured. LOL)

BOOOOOOOM!!!

2009-08-04T20:32:00.004+02:00

They've started to blow things up here today (the evil little... actually started while I was still asleep) One could think I should be used to explosions since I hear them twice a day from the nearby road work. But well that work area isn't nearly as near as the one I've got outside the balcony. These explosions were louder even though the other ones are bigger.

Anyway, I'm really proud that I was able to take a picture of the last blast. They're covering the explosions with protective rubber carpets which I'm really grateful for (after all I don't want flying rock through my windows or car roof) but it DOES make the explosion look bit tame.

"Yellow Pear" Tomatoes

Still not yellow quite yet

Now I wonder, should I make a stupid pun about the tomatoes looking like they're going to explode to make these photos seem more on topic with the subjectline? Naaaah... I think I'll pass! LOL I just wanted to show how big they've gotten so far. I hope they will be tasty because there's a lot of them,. Well, who am I kidding, home grown tomatoes are ALWAYS tasty. (Unlike home grown radishes that just get pretty flowers LOL)

Showing it's true color!

2009-08-02T23:43:00.000+02:00

Remember the variegated pelargonium bud? The one that first looked like it would become pink and then looked like it would become red instead? It's open it's first flowers now...

... and it wasn't as red as this one...

...or as pink as this one...

... instead it turned out to be something in between. LOL

It's a beautiful color though

Pelargoniums

Close up of the Mårbacka pelargonium. Look at how filled it is!

The entire window sill

The table area

The corner

White Runner Bean/Rosenböna

White Runner Bean/Rosenböna

White Runner Bean/Rosenböna

The odd red Runner Bean/Rosenböna

Look at how big the Hydrangea leaves have gotten now. Yay! It will survive!

And the Yellow Pear tomatoes are growing bigger as well

This plant is full of pear shaped tomatoes of various sizes (all of the them far from ripe yet). Tiny Tim on the other hand iss a late bloomer (in the true sense LOL) and is finally full of flowers and only a few tomatoes. I wonder if they will be able to ripen in time before the first frost? (I'm thinking of the tomatoes that are still just flowers, there's no danger of frost QUITE yet. LOL)

Pelargoniums and Sweet Peas

2009-07-30T23:44:00.000+02:00

I've been a bit busy these last couple of days. No, not too busy to water my darlings this time, but too busy to update the blog with the photos I took two days ago.

Good news though, the Sweet Peas/luktärtor and the Runner Beans/Rosenbönor have started to flower now and my balcony is starting too look more fun from the outside now as well. And even more important the Sweet Peas smells heavenly. No photos of the Runner Beans though since they turned out too blurry.

Sweet Pea/Luktärt

Sweet Pea/Luktärt

Sweet Pea/Luktärt

Radish flowers. They've got pretty flowers but next
year I think I'll focus on their roots instead. LOL

The outside (the orange nasturtiums/krasse in the background
belong to my neighbor though) See the hanging radish flower?

What's this??? RED Runner Bean buds???
They're supposed to be WHITE!

All the others are white but one plant seems to get red buds. I know the seeds originate from white beans (I grew them myself last summer and the actual beans are white as well, not just the flowers) but it must have reverted back to the original color somehow.

The last little strawberry

Unknown red Pelargonium

Another unknown red Pelargonium

This one seems to be red as well, not pink or white as I suspected

And this one is VERY red, but still very beautiful. I got it for my birthday

"Älvdalen"

"Mårbacka"

Petunia

Mjaaaauuuuuuuuu!!! Come back iiiiiiiiiiiin!!!

Cute, isn't she?

Drought!

2009-07-27T02:11:00.003+02:00

My poor, poor balcony plants! I've been away for a day and they where REALLY thirsty today. *guilty feelings* It took 20 liters (about 5.3 gallons) to satisfy their thirst (compared to 5-10 liters otherwise, depending on the weather) They looked a lot more refreshed after a while though.

Really sad parsley! (and a thirsty strawberry plant)

Dry flower box

Thirsty flowers! Look at the poor Lobelias!!!

Luckily it wasn't ALL sad and thirsty plants but some good news as well. After all, they didn't go without water for more than a day and a half or so (I would never be able to leave my balcony all alone for a week, not unless it rained heavily every day)

The baby tomatoes are growing bigger

And so are the Hydrangea leaves

And the last strawberries
(I wonder if they'll manage to grow big enough to eat?)

I also found some buds in the Runner Beans/Rosenbönor

Runner Bean buds

And now for an interesting addition to my balcony! My neighbors climbing vine! It's a very welcome guest but I fear that she will clean away the tendril sooner or later (she usually does this before they grow this tall).

I'm thinking about cutting off the top of it an try to root it and plant it on my side to have my own creeper. I wonder how she does in the winter (we're not living in the same staircase and don't have any contact, or else I would have asked.)

A machete would have helped!

2009-07-24T23:37:00.000+02:00

Today I've trimmed away some of the leaves from the tomato plants. The tomatoes have gotten the same kind of fertilizer as the radishes so they have a huge leaf mass as well. LOL By removing some of it I'm making sure that the baby tomatoes will get a bit more light and air and that the plants will focus their energy on growing baby tomatoes instead of growing huuuge leaves.

It didn't take too much though since they're supposed to still look good as well (it would have been different in a green house)

Tomato leaves

Shaved tomatoes

The other red pelargonium

This one looks like it will be pink though, or maybe white

Radish flower! Less blurry but still too washed out by the sunlight

A jungle of radishes

The tiny Hydrangea leaves are growing too (yes, it gets the same fertilizer)

New flowers!

2009-07-23T23:28:00.001+02:00

One of the red pelargoniums has opened it's first flower.
It's very simple and cute! The color is a bit darker IRL

This very odd (and VERY blurry) plant has opened it's
first flowers as well today. It's a flowering radish!!!

I think I was right in my guesses about the fertilizer. I've never seen flowering radishes before. The radish plants are getting HUGE and they've started to blossom but the actual roots are TINY. I guess I've learned a lesson until next year, do NOT use balcony fertilizer on radishes!!! LOL

The most beautiful garden of them all!

2009-07-22T20:34:00.000+02:00

No gardener can beat Mother Nature so I thought I should add some nature photos for a change. I brought the camera while my mom and I were out driving today. It was wonderful sunny day but unfortunately the sunlight was really string and hard which didn't make for the best photos but will still had a great time

The Baltic Sea/Östersjön (photo by my mom)

(photo by my mom)

(photo by my mom)

Red Clover/Rödklöver

Can't you just smell the the flowers in this bouquet? I can!

... but that probably depends on the fact that they're standing on a table not far from where I'm sitting. LOL

Going pear-shaped!

2009-07-21T17:21:00.004+02:00

Don't worry, there's nothing wrong with my balcony. It's not going pear-shaped THAT way! LOL It's just that I've found some baby tomatoes today and they ARE a bit pear-shaped (which they're of course SUPPOSED to be)

Baby tomato, Yellow Pear

Yellow Pear

Yellow Pear

Baby tomato, Tiny Tim (this one ISN'T supposed to be pear-shaped)

The strawberries weren't pear-shaped either but they WERE gooood!

The strawberry plant that didn't get any berries is getting baby plants instead

The Älvdalen pelargonium seems to do fine on crutches

Mårbacka

Pretty Petunia

These mini Petunias smell just WONDERFUL!

And they look lovely as well

The leaf buds are growing bigger, I think it will make it.

This is how the view looks right now, but at the
moment I think the workers are on vacation.

Balconies

2009-07-20T18:56:00.001+02:00

I've done another attempt to take some photos from the outside, both of my own balcony and others. I still think I would need a better camera to do this though

Close up of my balcony

My balcony and my closest neighbors'. The hanging baskets above my
balcony are all Petunias. This is the neighbor who's flowers brainwashed
me in to getting little old lady flowers this year (He's a guy though)

Flower boxes filled with Nasturtiums/Krasse on the balcony next to mine

This guy wanted me to take photos of his balcony as well.
Apparently he and the guy above me have a friendly balcony
competition every year. This year I think this balcony wins.

This ones is prettier IRL than on my photo though.

But well, not all balconies are pretty. My next door neighbor doesn't seem
to care (it's still a huge improvement compared to the former neighbor)

If you ask me my balcony looks a bit boring from the outside. Not boring as all those neglected balconies (which unfortunately are in majority) but boring compared to have it looks on the inside and compared to some of my neighbors' balconies. It WOULD have looked more interesting if the Runner Beans/Rosenbönor and Sweet Peas/Luktärtor finally would get some flowers though. I think I need to come up with something else for my trellises next summer. But flowerboxes on the outside isn't worth the trouble (imagine trying to take care of them though the trellis) especially since I wouldn't see much of them on the inside anyway. But well, maybe ONE flowerbox where I don't have any trellis?

Some photos of the "bonus garden" (unfortunately not much blossoms at the moment).

This flowerbed is beautiful in the spring (not so much now though)

On crutches

2009-07-20T13:48:00.000+02:00

No, I'm not in crutches but we had some hard rain and win last night so now some of the plants have to be on crutches. One of the bonus roses got knocked down by the weather but one of my neighbors took care of that (he does a lot of things around the house to keep things nice + he's really friendly as well)

Bonus rose on crutches

Bonus Jackdaw/Kaja

Bonus Magpie/Skata

I had to put my pelargonium and other window sill plants on the floor again but unfortunately the Älvdalen pelargonium got a bit damaged anyway. It's not completely broken though so I hope a crutch will be enough help.

The Älvdalen pelargonium

The radishes/rädisor are starting to look like they might
need crutches as well, lots of hanging foliage...

... but not much going on under ground

I'm having a theory about the radishes though. For obviously reasons I'm giving all my plants liquid fertilizer every time I water them and the fertilizer I'm using is for indoor plants and balcony plants (since that's what I got). With balcony plants you usually want to focus on foliage and flowers (especially flowers) so this is of course what this particular fertilizer is composed to do. But with plants like radishes you DON'T want to focus on the foliage since you're after what's going on below ground and not above it. Oooops! Didn't think about that. So now I have radishes with lots of pretty green leaves and even buds but not much to eat. LOL

On the other hand, my mom's radishes that are growing in a garden patch with plenty of soil and space around their roots (and the right kind of fertilizer, if any, I assume) are behaving the exact same way as mine so maybe it's just a bad summer for radishes?

The Petunias are starting to hang a bit too but
they're SUPPOSED to do that so no crutches needed. LOL

The strawberries are supposed to hang as well. Don't they look yummy?

And finally a little kitty cat objecting to her mommy going out on the balcony. She doesn't like that I leave her behind AT ALL.

From the other side

2009-07-19T19:46:00.004+02:00

I've tried taking photos of my balcony from the other side. That hasn't turned out very well so far. Not being able to walk very long because of my health issues (not very long = VERY short, I'm trying to put things nicely here) I've so far only tried to take photos through an open car window (while also keeping my eyes out for other cars). I will keep on trying until I'll be able to take some good photos though. And the same goes for the guerilla gardening flowerbeds. I've tried taking photos from the ground but my camera refuses to cooperate.

Anyway, here you can see my balcony from the outside.

My balcony is the one in the lower left corner. The pizza place
is behind the bike and the front door is on the other side of the house.

Blurry close up from a weird angle. Aren't you impressed
with my photographic skills? LOL (it was half a million degrees
in the car so you just wanted to get it done and leave.)

I think my balcony looks quite boring from the outside. No one can tell what a paradise it actually is. Maybe I should do something about that until the next summer? Or maybe not, after all I spend all my time on the pretty side of the balcony anyway. LOL

So let's all return to the pretty side now! LOL

The Mårbacka Pelargonium

The Älvdalen Pelargonium and an unknown variegated one (see the bud?)

Pelargonium bud

And another pelargonium bud

I looks like both of these will be red. Red isn't my favorite color in flowers but I think I'll be able to manage. LOL (And I'm SURE you can all figure out what my favorite color is. LOL)

I'll take that back, I REALLY like red in some cases

Look the radishes are staring to swell out a bit! (It tasted good as well)

I guess the radishes are just a bit slow... Note for next year: Make sure to sow radishes a bit earlier. Perhaps I should start to write down my thoughts and ideas for next summer?

I have some more good news, my Hydrangea is starting to show some budding leaves again. It's lost more of the old leaves (I guess it REALLY didn't like soapy water) and I had to cute it down a bit more but now it's started to grow a bit again. I doubt I'll get any more flowers this season but I hope it will grow strong again and that I'll be able to keep it over the winter. (Indoors of course!)

Hydrangea/Hortensia

I know it's blurry but just look all those tiny leaf buds!

Yesterday's News

2009-07-15T19:50:00.005+02:00

We had some REALLY vicious thunderclouds yesterday but only a heavy shower in the morning and no actual thunder. No mean cloud could stop me from taking photos though.

A flower fairy amongst the pale blue Lobelias

(I make her clothes myself)

Pytte is showing off the strawberry

The strawberry's showing off itself

Looking all nice and ripe. I tasted wonderful too! Yummmmm!

My other strawberry plant, I doubt it will give any berries

The radish looks a lot less ripe. LOL Nothing wrong with the taste though.

Busy Lizzy

Pelargonium bug. I love variegated leaves

The Älvdalen pelargonium

The window

Petunias in one of the flower boxes

My poor miserable Hydrangea/Hortensia

Bonus Mock Orange

Guerilla gardening! Doesn't it look wonderful? The photo is taken
from my bed room window and the image quality is really bad though

What a difference a day makes!

2009-07-12T22:36:00.001+02:00

Look at the strawberry today!!!!

I did tell you I get a lot of sunshine on my balcony, didn't I? LOL And the last couple of days have been really sunny and NICE, not too hot, not too cold, not too rainy and not too windy (see, I don't complain about the weather EVERY day LOL) I wonder if it's ready to eat tomorrow?

And the Busy Lizzy looks like a little rose today

Everything's back where it belongs

2009-07-11T12:05:00.004+02:00

The wind has calmed down again and the window sill looks as pretty as it use to today. In fact it's getting prettier and prettier for every day now

Busy Lizzy/Flitig Lisa

"Mårbacka"

"Älvdalen"

Close up of "Älvdalen"

Look! It's blushing! Yummy!! (Well, soon at least)

The radishes/rädisor (yes, I KNOW they're too many in a small pot. LOL
I knew that from the start but it will change when I begin to eat them)

More yummy wild strawberries/smultron

The Hydrangea looking very shiny because of the soap water

Unfortunately it seems like the brand new baby leaves have turned brown because of the soap water *sigh* But well as long as it keeps the spinning mites away it's worth it. I would have preferred to used a soap/alcohol mix (sorry, can't find a good translation for in in English) that I used on bugs before but I've moved twice since I used it the last time so I can't find the bottle any more. If the plain soap water doesn't help I might have to buy a new bottle. (Even though I'm sure the baby leaves will like that one even less)

Air in a hurry (today)

2009-07-10T23:16:00.001+02:00

Some one said that wind is just air in a hurry. Well, let's just say that today the wind REALLY needs to be somewhere very important ASAP because it's been REALLY windy all day. Sunny and beautiful weather but WINDY!

It's difficult to show the wind on a photo though

I discovered that I had to tie the tomatoes higher up on the railing because of the wind. I even had to tie up the Tiny Tim tomato and you're usually not supposed to tie up small shrub tomatoes.

Before

After

As you might be able to tell I use to tie up my tomatoes with recycled gift wrapping ribbons. Recycling is cheap, good for the environment and as a bonus it's pretty as well. Now pretty ribbons in the tomatoes weren't that important back in my old green house but it DOES make a difference on a balcony. The ribbons are also friendly against the tomato stems (which of course matters both in green houses and on balconies).

The Busy Lizzy/Flitig Lisa is starting to open the first bud

The "Älvdalen" Pelargonium

Because of the heavy wind I had to place all the window sill flowers on the floor. The window sill is narrow and I didn't like the way they were moving in the wind. I moved the chive/gräslök and pelargonium from the table as well.

Empty!

Look at my poor Hydrangea baby!

Unfortunately I've discovered that my poor Hydrangea was full of spinning mites again. I should have sprayed it with soap water the first time I found them. But then again that would gave killed the flowers and this way the flowers lasted longer. But now the flowers have started to wither so I decided to cute the plant down a bit and bring out the soap water.

The Hydrangea sheltered from the wind but still on a safe distance
from the pelargoniums to avoid spreading the evil bugs.

Wednesday, July 8, 2009

2009-07-10T21:52:00.001+02:00

"Mårbacka" again! Isn't it absolutely stunning???

This is an old fashioned Swedish pelargonium named after home of the Swedish author and Nobel Prize winner Selma Lagerlöf.

The "blurry bud" has started to open.

This one is called Älvdalen and is named after a place in Sweden where I've once lived and that I love VERY much. Because of this (and because it's really beautiful) this pelargonium is very close to my heart. Älvdalen and Mårbacka are some of my favorites.

The strawberry has stared to become more white (= it's started to ripen)

My favorite flower box

The table and one of the other flowerboxes (quite pretty as well)

Unfortunately it seems to me like the Runner Beans /Rosenbönor are growing quite slowly (for being Runner Beans that is) I'm started to wonder if the white ones are weaker than the original orangey-red ones that i had the first summer. They didn't grow very well (again, for being Runner Beans) last summer either, but than again, NOTHING grew well that summer.

I will have to make up my mind until next summer if I should try something else on the trellis that will cover them better. On the other hand the only thing I can think of that grows as fast as Runner Beans usually do is Nasturtiums/Krasse and they don't come in my favorite colors (as far as I know, unless they've "inveted" new ones).

Monday, July 6, 2009

2009-07-10T21:21:00.002+02:00

More catching up to do! Being off line for a couple of days sure didn't stop me from taking photos! LOL

Tiny Petunia about to open

I like this photo with my homemade ornament in the foreground

The 'Mårbacka' Pelargonium

A pelargonium bud

The camera REALLY refused to focus on this pelargonium bud
(I tried several times)

My Hydrangea/Hortensia - still looking pretty fresh

The Bonus Roses

The view and the building site - they've been working nights there all week.

At my mom's again (July 5)

2009-07-10T14:00:00.003+02:00

More catching up to do! Last weekend I visited my mom again and of course I took some more photos. My mom has also sent me a bunch of photos she's taken herself to include in the blog.

Unknown climbing rose

Close up (Photo: My mom)

Not quite sure of the name but it looks like some kind of thistle/tistel
(Photo: My mom)

Alcymist. Isn't it impressive?

Still Alchymist but in a different light (Photo: My mom)

(Photo: My mom)

Stanwell Perpetual (one of my favorites in my old garden)

Peony/Pion (Photo: My mom)

Foxglove/Fingeborgsblomma/Digitalis (Photo: My mom)

Peony/Pion

Tagetes and bumblebee (Photo: My mom)

My mom's house! Eh.. maybe not.. LOL

THIS is however! (Photo: My mom)

The house with the garage /weaving cottage and
green house in the front (Photo: My mom)

Sunday, July 5, 2009

2009-07-09T19:44:00.000+02:00

Yellow Pear tomato

Today I did some tidying up and maintenance again. It was time to tie up the Yellow Pear tomato and the Hydrangea needed some love and care

Hydrangea/Hortensia

The poor Hydrangea really didn't fare well in the heat wave we had earlier. The foliage started to fade and get burnt and one day I found the flowers covered by a fine web (probably spinning mite/spinn) I of course removed the web immediately and then I started to spray the plant with a fine mist of water every day. That did wonders to the foliage but the flowers got a bit speckled.

The plant look a lot fresher and darker green again now (I guess the cooler weather also helps) and I haven't seen any more mites or web. Today I removed all the brown and burnt leaves and leaf edges as well so it looks a lot prettier now (although not nearly as good as it did earlier in the summer of course) Direct sun just isn't good for Hydrangeas but that's all I have to offer on my balcony.

Pelargonium bud

The "Mårbacka" pelargonium is opening it's flowers more and more.

The strawberries.

This is how the bonus flower bed looks right now

The bonus roses have gotten their first flowers

And so has the Mock Orange /Schersmin

It's too bad that this part of the bonus garden looks so ugly and neglected though. It would probably have helped to sow some grass seeds instead of letting mother nature sow weeds instead (even though some weeds have pretty flowers).

Back again... I think... (today)

2009-07-09T17:53:00.003+02:00

It's just a liiiiittle bit wet today! The rain might not be as heavy as on the thunderstorm photos but it started sometimes yesterday evening and have pretty much been going on since. It's really cold, gloomy and WET at the moment. But I guess I shouldn't complain since there are other parts of Sweden that's gotten flooded recently and the only thing flooded here are the flowerpots and saucers that I have to keep an eye one.

I've had to put the big bowl of Petunias in on the floor at the dry end of the balcony since there's no drainage hole in the bottom. But at least I don't have to water... that much... There ARE still a few of the pots on the window sill that's sheltered from the rain.

Anyway, my internet connection is supposed to be completely fixed now so I've got a lot of catching up to do here. I ~~need~~ want to show you the photos for the days I've been off line as well. They're not QUITE as soaked in water as today's photos. LOL

BTW, I've just found out that they're NOT building apartments behind the red house. They're building a parking lot and some kind of bus terminal (I don't know yet if that will include a house or not). The apartments will be built further away from me where I can't see them.

Internet problems

2009-07-08T12:42:00.003+02:00

*sigh* I've had some troubles with my internet and phone the last couple of days. Although it's of course started to work just in time before the technician will come. LOL

Anyway, I'm way behind with my updates because of this and it will take me some times to catch up. But at least I've been able to pot the entry I wrote just before it went down.

While waiting for me to publish the rest of the photos you can visit my sister-in-law's garden blog Fay's Garden. It's in Swedish but the photos look pretty in any language (especially if you click on them to se the bigger versions)

Thunderstorms

2009-07-04T23:39:00.001+02:00

Today and yesterday we've had a lot of on and off thunderstorms, more thunder yesterday and heavier downpours today. (We've been lucky though since other parts in Sweden have had problems with flooding. It hasn't been THAT bad here) It's still been pretty warm and sunny in-between though.

Heavy rain! Can you see the water bounce on the street?

A TINY bit of water!

The pelargonium in daylight (well sort of, it's pretty dark because of the weather. LOL)

An another pelargonium bud

I assume the thunder is what's messing with my phone/internet connection/TV tonight (I've got them all from the same company) even if it's too distant for me to hear. I can't get online right now but I'll put this entry up as soon as I can.

A late evening on the balcony!

2009-07-04T16:24:00.004+02:00

Evenings are the time I can enjoy my balcony the most, at least during the current heat wave. When the sun's about to set it's finally cool enough on the balcony but it's still light enough to water and tend to the plants and even do what I did last night, just sat down and enjoyed the peace, munched on some sweet peas, wild strawberries, chive and parsley and tried to solve a crossword puzzle. I stayed out there until it was past eleven. The only downside was that one of the pizza guys were working late and took smoke breaks ever so often which forced me inside until the air had cleared.

I got a little visitor too, my second cat

She even tried helping me with my crossword! LOL

I've just found a bud in my Busy Lizzy/Flitiga Lisa...

...and a fully open flower in my pelargonium

More from my mom's garden

2009-07-03T16:50:00.000+02:00

I took some more photos at my mom's garden yesterday afternoon. Luckily they haven't had as many deer as usually in the garden for while now (only a few) so they've gotten to keep some of their flowers. One of the good things with a balcony is that I have less deer and slug problems. LOL

Gorgeous peonies/pioner

I couldn't pick a favorite photo

Isn't their climbing rose, Alchymist, absolutely stunning?
This is only a small part if it, it's HUGE!!! (It's more yellow IRL)

Irises by the pond and even small Hostas/Funkior that's survived
the deer (they're favorite dish an are usually just small stumps, in
a less deer frequented gardens they're a lot bigger than this though)

"The Saringe Rose".

This rose comes from my grandmother's childhood home in
a tiny village called Saringe. The plant has moved around in my family depending on who's had a garden at the moment. It lived in my old garden before and moved to my mom in 2005. It's the only rose I brought with me out of all the stunning roses I had. My brother also got a part of it for his new garden last year. The mother plant is HUGE! I'll ask my mom if she's got photos of it.

My mom's cat! He's the brother of my two spoiled brats.

Meadow Rue/Akljeruta (Thalictrum aquilegiifolium)

Close up

My furry visitor

2009-07-03T13:47:00.003+02:00

Once of my cats decided to join me on the balcony again yesterday.

The corner has never looked as pretty
as with a little furry garden ornament

Sitting on my lap

One of the pelargonium buds has started to open. I love the color!

This is how the window looks right now

Strawberries and chive

2009-07-01T23:44:00.005+02:00

Doesn't that sound like a tasteful combination? Eh.. maybe not! Okay, I promise not to eat them together. LOL

Yesterday my mom brought me a chive/gräslök and another strawberry plant, WITH berries this time (my stepfather accidentally dug it up while digging for potatoes). If the move will survive the move in spote if the heat I might actually get some berries to eat (my other plant has refused to flower so far)

I've rearranged thing a bit and but the pansy pot in the corner instead since they're starting to reach their end and at the moment the chive and one of my pelargoniums have joined the petunias on the table instead.

These photos are taken in the evening so the light is a little bit better this time, of not perfect.

The table

Close up of the table with Petunias, Chive/Gräslök and Pelargonium.

Petunia and Sweet Alyssum/Strandkrassing (in less hard light than last time)

The corner in better light as well, now with Pansies /Penséer

The Bleeding Heart/Löjtnantshjärta has started to become yellow not but since it shares the pot with the Wild Strawberry it gets to stay for a while longer until it will move back to my mom. (I really appreciate being able to borrow perennials from her garden instead of trying to keep them on the balcony during the winter)

The new strawberry

Wild Strawberry/Smultron
(the plant has started to trail all over the other pots)

More tomato flowers, this time in the Yellow Pear
(the last photos was from Tiny Tim)

And the bonus flower bed.

Maintenance work

2009-06-30T15:07:00.004+02:00

Last night/evening I did some maintenance work on the balcony. You know weeding, watering, removing dead flowers, turning pots and things like that. Because of the heat wave you can only do this late in the evening when things have cooled down a bit and lately I've been too busy "mini vacationing" to do more than watering so I was a bit behind in my chores.

Curious kitty!

My balcony isn't kitty proofed so I can't let my cats out there but last night I badly needed to open up the door more than the narrow cat-safe opening to let in some cool air (I've got mosquito/cat net in my bedroom window so I can keep it fully open but it's just not enough) and of course two scared but very curious kitties followed me out on the balcony. It slowed down my maintenance work a bit to keep them safe but it was worth it.

And yes, I know there is (or rather WAS) weeds in the Deadly Nightshade/Belladonna pot *blushes* It's gone now though!

My poor, bald, lanky Hydrangea/Hortensia

It was time to remove the withering flowers from my Hydrangea to leave room for new branches (and hopefully new buds) but the poor thing is looking miserable right now (and so is the photo, the flash was really messing with me here). The Hydrangea REALLY doesn't like the heat wave but I hope trimming away the withering flowers will help it to feel a bit refreshed.

Lovely Petunias! How could I ever find them boring?

And look! One of the Wild Strawberries/Smultron is starting to turn red.

Pale blue Lobelia

I know the photo is quite blurry but I still think it's beautiful. I love the almost magical glow the flowers have gotten in this photo.

Heat wave

2009-06-29T22:28:00.000+02:00

As I mentioned earlier we have a heat wave in Sweden right now! Phew! Today's been the hottest day so far with +36°C out on the balcony = way too hot for both me and some of my plants. (Let's face it, I'm Swedish! Complaining about the weather is a HUGE part of the Swedish mentality, no matter if it's too hot or too rainy. LOL)

There are only a few ours early in the day that when I can use the balcony and then I can't go out there until late evening. And the bright sun shining from a clear blue sky causes a really bad light for taking photos as well with harsh shadows and washed out colors. But I still want to document the growth and a lot of thing's happened since the last photos (all the heath and sun have finally encouraged my plants to GROW, as long as I give them plenty of water).

As you can tell the thee flower boxes have become a bit more lush.

Or you WOULD have been able to tell if it wasn't for the harsh shadows.

The corner is staring to look like a jungle (a lot prettier IRL than in this photo)

I've been able to find the first (yummy!) Sweet Pea pods

There's buds in two of the pelargonium plants

The Hydrangea/Hortensia bud seen in the last entry has begun to blossom.

I've also spotted tomato flowers (but no baby tomatoes yet)

And look at how big the radishes are (I soon need to remove some of them
to give room for the others, I just want them to be a little bit bigger first

The striped Petunia has gotten a lot of flowers...

...and so has the tiny, pink one...

...and the tiny purple one as well

Pale blue trailing Lobelia

Pink trailing Lobelia

Better late than never!

2009-06-29T20:00:00.005+02:00

Oh no! I just realized that I've never showed these photos (and I'd even fixed them up and uploaded them, I just forgot to create the post *blush*) I think I'll blame it on the heat wave we're having right now and the fact that I've had kind of a mini vacation for a couple of days (even though I spent the nights at home, much to the relief of my thirsty balcony flowers)

Anyway, these photos are from TUESDAY, JUNE 23, 2009 just like the foggy night photos (these are taken during the day after that night though).

Hydrangea/Hortensia buds

Blue trailing Lobelia/Hänglobelia

Pale blue trailing Lobelia/Hänglobelia

Purple trailing Lobelia/Hänglobelia

Petunia

Tiny Petunia

Pytte with tiny Petunia and Sweet Alyssum/Strandkrassing

Pytte hiding amongst the Petunias

The Radishes/Rädisor

The bonus flowerbed has started to blossom

I've taken some recent photos today as well that I will show later.... if I can remember it!!! LOL

Misty Mountains

2009-06-23T19:07:00.003+02:00

Or well, at least there COULD be mountains out there, I wouldn't be to see them anyway. LOL

Night fog

The last couple of days we've had sunshine! Yay!!! The same can't be said for the nights though. Well, yes I know, sunshine is a bit rare at might anyway but I'm talking about clear skies. Or well, actually, I AM talking about sunshine as well since the sun actually rises at 03.30 at night at this time of the year and these photos are taken well passed that time but still at night. And as you can see, no sunshine what so ever! (or clear sky for that matter)

I've said it before, this costal climate takes some time to get used to!

Wild Strawberries/Smultron

It's still light enough to take night photos of my little Wild Strawberries/Smultron though. I'm looking forward to taste them later on..

About scents and smells

2009-06-21T00:58:00.006+02:00

As I've said before, I think it's important to experience your garden and balcony with all you senses. The problem is that when you have a balcony it's hard to control these things yourself, you're a victim to other people as well and because of this the scents and smells on my balcony aren't always that enjoyable.

First of all, as I've told you earlier, there's a pizza parlor just below my balcony. This means that every now and then my balcony smells of pizza and while the pizza aroma makes you hungry and it's not a typical garden scent. LOL

But the main problem with the pizza parlor is all the cigarette smoke. Yuck!!!! You're not allowed to smoke in restaurants in Sweden which means that many smoking customers take a cigarette before entering the pizza parlor and often as soon as they exit as well. And when they're low on customers the pizza guys them selves take long smoke breaks under my balcony too. Cigarette smoke is absolutely vile and disgusting and I also have serious problems with it because of my asthma which means I can't enjoy my balcony AT ALL (not even keep the door open) when someone's smoking nearby. *insert all kinds of angry, not very family friendly words here*

Another smell that doesn't exactly fall under the category "lovely flowery scents" is cow dung. LOL I have a farm not very far away and during the summer nights the smell of dung usually reaches my balcony (for some reason you don't feel it during the day). I'll take cow dung over cigarette smoke any day though (maybe even over pizza, I'm not that fond of pizza. LOL). It reminds me of my childhood summers.

This summer I've tried to add some lovely scents as well. I love the wonderful sweet honey scent of my Sweet Alyssum/Strandkrassing and tonight while burring my nose in flowers to hide it from the cow dung I also discovered that the tiny, purple Petunia has a very lovely fragrance that the other Petunias lack. And later on in summer I will hopefully get Sweet Peas/Luktärt as well, if it just gets warm enough for them to grown.

Now I just wish I could add roses, lilacs, honeysuckles/kaprifoler and such to my balcony as well. (Or even more so I wish the pizza parlor would go bankrupt LOL)

My mom's garden

2009-06-20T18:09:00.003+02:00

I was visiting my mom yesterday to celebrate Midsummer and I thought this was a great opportunity to show you some of her garden (again I assume that balcony blog readers have an interest in other similar stuff, like gardens)

Unfortunately the weather and, because of that, the photo conditions were really bad. It was rainy and humid and those thick thunder clouds that makes the light so weird. Even if it didn't actually rain when I took my photos all of them turned out more or less blurry and well just not generally very good. I really wish I had a better camera (6 years is old for a digital camera) Maybe it's not fair to show my mom's garden in a less flattering way but I still think you will get a feeling for how lush and absolutely gorgeous it is.

This is just a part of her HUGE Rhododendron
(unfortunately the flowers had been a bit knocked down by all the rain)

They have deer problems which is why the young
apple tree in the background stands in a cage.

The potatoes and strawberries are caged too

White Bleeding Heart/Löjtnantshjärta and a little fellow made of birch

Columbine/Akleja

Part of the huge flowerbed below one of their porches

Garage/car port/weaving cottage seen in the background.

The bonus garden - part 2

2009-06-18T15:11:00.003+02:00

Lookie, lookie what they've done today!!! Pretty!!! (Okay so one of the edges are a bit crooked but it's such a fantastic improvement anyway so I don't care... much. LOL)

The stairs below goes to a pizza parlor not to our front door. I'm not particularly fond of pizza though so that's NOT a bonus. LOL

Pretty, newly weeded flowerbed

More tidy than yesterday

And I'm sure you all can guess what I think about today's weather? LOL

My bonus garden

2009-06-17T16:49:00.007+02:00

I use to think of the grass, the rose bushes and the flowerbed below my balcony as my bonus garden. After all, I get to enjoy this little area as soon as I lift my head and peak over the reeling (Well, symbolically that is, even if I AM short in reality I'm not REALLY short enough to have to lift the head to peak over the reeling, I can see things fine as long as I'm standing up. LOL) In fact I see most of the greenery surrounding this house as my bonus garden.

Everything was very neat, tidy and well kept the first summer but not so the last one. I guess both the drought we had and all the dust and dirt from the road construction site made the landlord (big, local landlording company) ignore all their gardening chores (after all, I pretty much had to give up on the balcony that summer as well). On the other hand people living in this house also tend to voluntarily take care of the gardening as well, especially on the other side of the house where people (read: old age pensioners) are doing guerilla gardening and dig their own flowerbeds. LOL (The landlord doesn't mind, it's all well taken care of and makes this house feel very much like a home for the people living here and personally I love it)

Anyway, back to the part of the bonus garden that I can actually see from my balcony.

The bonus flowerbed

As you can see the flowerbed is still in dire need of some weeding! I wonder if the landlord or the guerilla gardeners are in charge of that one? I assume the sooner (or else it would be tidy LOL). I know that at least lawns, threes and shrubs fall under the landlord's responsibility and today they've actually had people out taking care of the rose bushes.

The bonus roses (they're still nned to tidy up here)

Now personally I prefer roses bushes to keep their free, organic shapes (some cutting are of course always needed anyway to remove dead wood etc) instead of the square shapes they've cut the shrubs in to today. But it's still a positive thing that they're starting to take better care of my bonus garden again (EVEN if they've cut away a lot of this years rose buds). Hopefully they will weed the flowerbed as well soon.

I promise to sneak out and take some photos of the guerilla flowerbeds another day but meanwhile you will have to settle with a photo from my balcony instead. And *faint* it's a miracle! We're having sunshine today too!!!

The tiny, pink ~~little old lady plant~~ Petunia

What a difference a day makes!

2009-06-16T23:47:00.002+02:00

Today we've had sunshine! I mean real actual sunny sunshine, not just the sun trying to shine through thinner layers of clouds like yesterday, but sunshine form a nice clear blue sky. And all of a sudden both me an the plants starts to blossom a bit more.

For instance my Bleeding Heart/Löjtnantshjärta started to flower today and I've found sugar pea flowers too. Okay, pea flowers aren't that exciting (even though they're cute if you give them a close look) but this mean that I will soon have sweet, yummy pea pods to munch on. Yum!!!

And guess what, my rugs have stopped squelching! By tomorrow they might be completely dry.

Bleeding Heart/Löjtnantshjärta

Sugar Pea/Sockerärta

Hydrangea/Hortensia

Petunia

My stunning view (also known as the building site)

Damage control

2009-06-15T18:41:00.003+02:00

Today the weather's been a little bit dryer. Not rain-FREE of course but more of a light drizzle and now in the even it's even a HINT of sunshine and things are starting to dry up a bit. I guess that's at least SOMETHING to be grateful of this summer. LOL

I've been out on the balcony pouring away all the excess water from the flowerpot saucers, fixing the sagging "curtain", putting back the chair cushion and just in general tidying up after the massive dose of rain we've gotten lately. Two single plants (in the most protected corner of the windowsill) needed watering but all the others (even on the windowsill) were really wet.

I will need to sweep the floors once it gets really dry but at the moment my temporary plastic rugs are squelching. Yuck! I REALLY look forward to when my stepfather will help me to put in a better floor.

Not much has grown in June, other than the radishes of course. LOL

More cacti photos!

2009-06-14T19:22:00.000+02:00

A bit blurry bt you can still get a feeling for the size of it

We're about to drown here!

2009-06-14T16:47:00.001+02:00

Soaking wet and sagging!

It keeps raining and raining and raining! Everything is completely soaked and today the weather somehow manages to be even wetter than ordinary rain (that happens if you combine rain with lots of mist). As I've described it to my brother (that lives in a differnet part of Sweden), we've had two kinds if weather here this summer, rain WITH fog and rain WITHOUT fog. *sigh* I guess this costal climate with all the misty weather takes a couple of years to get used to.

My plants are about to drown, I think even the ones on the windowsill are getting their fair share of water (and usually rain never reaches more than the "corner"). I've hade to take in the big chair cushion to dry it and look at the fabric I'm keeping to block the view (it's a more open section of the balcony wall there with only metal bars). It's not SUPPOSED to sag like that.

Look at my cactus!

2009-06-13T14:06:00.002+02:00

Okay, time for some off topic indoor photos. I'm taking the liberty here to assume that people that visits a balcony blog in general like looking at photos of flowers (if you don't this blog will soon bore you to death. LOL) so I will continue to assume that you don't mind looking at a few photos of indoors flowers as well, especially when they're as lovely as my cactus.

I've had it for ages and it's the first time it's blooming. I'm sooo proud of it!

Stunning, isn't it?

And it's not even fully opened yet, it started opening today

More photos of "boring" plants! LOL

2009-06-12T19:36:00.006+02:00

Obviously I must really love my "boring" Petunias since I keep taking more and more photos of them LOL I guess I've turned in to a Petunia lover this summer. (Or should I call it "this rain season?)

Look how ~~boring~~ beautiful it is!

I've made the decorative heart myself, two years ago

Close up of the pink Sweet Alison/Strandkrassing

And the white one
(they both smell heavenly, especially in cold weather)

The corner is getting crowded

And the radishes are getting bigger

Oh no! Not the trees!!!

2009-06-12T13:28:00.001+02:00

Oh nooooo!!! They're cutting down some of the hug pine trees!!! (next to the workers' huts) The evil green truck is chopping them up in to pieces,

My soul aches when they're killing trees. *sob* And I (and the jackdaws) loved these trees. *sigh* Threes are ALIVE! (I'm still grieving for the huge birch they killed last summer, now there's only one left)

On a happier note, the weather is really lovely today! Ehhh.... maybe not! LOL

I'm ooooold!

2009-06-11T18:45:00.007+02:00

I guess turning 40 really WAS the end of my fun, imaginative young self. Now I've turned old and boring! I've gotten Petunias!!! LMAO

I've always thought that Petunias were for little old ladies and boring people with no imagination and now I'm one myself, a boring, little, old lady with no imagination but with four petunias instead. LOL

I mostly blame my upstairs neighbor because every summer he's got the most stunning hanging Petunia baskets (and it's even just the basic bluish purple but they're still stunning). I also kind of blame my former mother-in-law's fantastic petunias (on the other hand she WAS a boring, old lady with no imagination so that's maybe the origin if my prejudices against the poor little flowers. LOL) But I also blame the "plant breeders" that's over the year created petunias in the most stunning colors and the cutest sizes. It's just not FAIR to wear down people's Petunia resistance by making the newer Petunias absolutely irresistible! And finally I blame my garden center that happened to have those irresistible Petunias right at the time when I came to buy some lobelias to mix in with the vegetables in my flower boxes.

See, it's not MY fault at all!!!! *innocent* I mean I can't HELP that I've just bought 4 different Petunias and that I happen to LOVE them. It's everyone else's fault!!! LOL I'm not old and boring at all, I'm NOT! LOL

I mean who can resist this tiny, lavender cutie? *heartmelt*

Or this gorgeous bi-color pink?

Or this LOVELY shade of pink?
(I'm sure you all know I love pink by now LOL)

And this is BOTH pink and tiny *heartmelt*

I've planted a Petunia in each flower box along with Trailing Lobelias/Hänglobelia in pink, purple, white and both dark and light blue. I've also moved the Sugar Peas from the tomato pots to the pea-less flowerboxes since the Snow Peas/Luktärtor in those boxes are growing really slow (no wonder with all the cold and rain we've had).

The tiny, lavender Petunia I planted in the bowl on the table instead of the spring flowers that got to move back home to my mom's garden today. I've combined it with honey scented Sweet Alison/Strandkrassing in pink and white.

Today I've finally moved down the red star pelargonium
from the windowsill for good. It will be safer on the floor.

BTW, can you see something strange and unusual on these photos? The sun is actually shining today!!!!!!

Look at my baby radishes growing big

2009-06-10T12:37:00.002+02:00

I shouldn't get too attached to these,
after all I plan to eat them. LOL

The new plants have moved to the windowsill

New plants!!!

2009-06-09T13:51:00.001+02:00

When my mom came over today she brought 3 new pelargoniums and a Busy Lizzie/Flitig Lisa. Yay for more flowers!

Stoooormy weather...

2009-06-06T16:15:00.005+02:00

Can you hear me sing? LOL

Doesn't it look just lovely outside? (it's in the middle of the day)

I'm getting sick and tired of this weather now. *sigh* Luckily there was no frost after all last night (it only dropped to 3.8°C) but it's cold, rainy and yucky. But well, not even the weather can stop me from taking some photos. LOL

Forget-me-not/Förgätmigej

Wild Strawberry/Smultron

The Iron Nights

2009-06-06T01:15:00.002+02:00

The first nights in June are usually called "the Iron Nights" here in Sweden because the temperature usually plunges during the night and it's even a risk of frost. When the Iron Nights are over it's usually safe to plant the frost sensitive plants and leave all plants out during the night

Now but April and May have been pretty warm so it felt safe to plant my seedlings already but tonight looks to be cold. The temperature is down to +4°C now and still falling (39.2°F) so I've made sure to take in some of the plants tonight, even the tomatoes! LOL I had to leave the flowerboxes outside though since the beans and peas are attached to the trellis.

Uh oh! What are they doing now?

2009-06-04T14:45:00.002+02:00

It looks like they're putting up some kind of workers' huts. *sigh* I guess I'll have to spend this summer looking at building constructors too. (Yes I know some of you might think bare chested, sun tanned building constructors are hot and hunky but the ones that worked outside my balcony last year were more old and chunky and with loads of beards or even hairy all over! Not my favorite kind of view. LOL)

Oh how I love what they've done with my view! NOT!

See the gravel piles in the background behind what looks like a metallic slide (=the roof of a big stairway)? This is where I suspect they will build new houses.

And as you can tell, the weather is just as... eh... lovely.. or something... today. LOL

Look! Baby radishes!

New decorations!

2009-06-02T13:30:00.003+02:00

Hey! Where did the summer go? Okay, I know I complained about my balcony being a bit too hot but that didn't mean that I wanted it to be cold, rainy and really windy. It's like fall in the beginning of June! *shudder*

The red pelargonium got knocked over so I had to put it on the floor. Maybe it's too much of a wind catcher to keep on the windowsill?

Today's photos are unfortunately a bit gray, dull, gloomy and blurry. So is today's weather as well. You just can't take cheerful photos on a day like this. LOL

Anyway, I've put out some new decorations today. I've made a of candle holder from a.... eh... wall shelf for flower pots... (sometimes my dictionary lacks a few words. LOL) Don't worry the candle is firmly secured with wire to keep if from falling off but I've hidden the candle with three ivory candle rings (not quite sure about the dictionary here either, but the kind of decorations you put around candles indoors) I've also hung a wreath decorated with scrapbooking flowers on the wall. Yes, they're made of paper but the rain doesn't reach the inner corner and I don't mind throwing them away when the summer is over. (The false grapes that hung on the wall before are now hanging on the trellis)

Since today's theme is decorations I thought I should show off some of my stones as well. Yes, I like my stones, can you tell? LOL This is a fossil of some kind of shell on top of a more flat stone and then there's a stone painted by my sister in law (The one with the Deadly Nightshade LOL)

This side says; Please turn me over!

and the other side says: Thanks, that felt good...

And look, some things have actually managed to grow in this cold. (Yes, I know, the nature really needs the rain after a warm and dry spring but MY plants don't so could it please rain during the nights instead? LOL)

Itty, bitty, tiny radishes!

Pytte - the flower fairy

2009-05-31T16:45:00.001+02:00

Meet my little friend Pytte! Doesn't she look like a little flower fairy? It's so fun taking photos of her on the balcony so expect to see more of them in the future.

Pytte's showing off the tomato.

Pytte in the hydrangea, just her colors.

No mommy, this isn't a strawberry!!! Strawberries are
round and red and you can EAT them, this is a flower!

Gardening (or in this case "balconing") isn't just about work.
You need to remember to rest and smell the flowers as well

My darling violet

2009-05-31T16:18:00.006+02:00

Viola odorata 'freckles'

This little freckled violet is very dear to me. I've known it since way back in -95 when it was nothing more than a little seed imported from England (these days you can them in Sweden too though). I planted the little seed (and it's seed siblings) in my study in the apartment I lived then and when it was big enough it got to move to my allotment (kolonilott) where it got to stay for one summer only before we had to move again. Next stop was in an abandoned (but restored) flower bed in a very cold and hard climate ("Zon 7" if you're Swedish but that doesn't make much sense outside Sweden). Not the best place for a young little plant but it only had to stay for a year before we moved to a bigger and warmer garden. Finally it had a good chance to grow and blossom and later on I was able to share a part of my freckled violet friend with my mom.

Unfortunately I lost this garden because of my divorce but every spring my mom brings me a plant of this violet to keep on my balcony and later on in the summer it moves back to her garden to rest until next spring. I know that this particular plant most likely ISN'T the same plant that I've brought with me from garden to garden, it's more likely a grand-grand-grand-child, but it still gives me a feeling if continuity and reminds me of the gardens I've had and lost. It's the only thing that's left of my garden dreams but as long as it's blossoms on my balcony a little part of those dreams are still alive.

The big planting day!

2009-05-31T13:35:00.006+02:00

Phew! Now I'm done with all the planting! It was a lot of work and way too hot but I'm really pleased with the result. I really DO need to get some kind if shading on my balcony though. It gets REALLY hot there when the sun reaches the balcony (even if I did most of the planting before the sun had fully reached around the house)

The corner

I call this part of the balcony "the corner". In the hanging flower box I've planted white runner beans /rosenbönor and sugar peas/sockerärtor. The runner beans are fast growing and will cover the trellis to block people's view (especially important since this side of the balcony faces a neighboring balcony). And well sugar peas are a MUST! I love munching on them! Yum! And since the balcony is my replacement garden things to eat are as important to have here as it was in my garden. You're supposed to be able to experience your garden or balcony with all your senses.

I've also put my two tomatoes in the corner. The small one on the chair is a cherry tomato called "Tiny Tim" and the one to the left of the chair is another cherry tomato called "Yellow Pear" (that will, surprise, surprise, get yellow, pear shaped tomatoes LOL) So far I've planted some of the sugar peas in the tomato pots but I might move them later. The big plant below the flower box is a Deadly Nightshade/Belladonna that my sister in law insisted that I HAD to have. LOL And I've sown some radishes/rädisor in the black empty looking pot (and even some in the flower boxes LOL)

The sign is left from my 40th birthday a week ago. LOL

The window

The window area looks pretty much the same. As you can tell I've moved down the hydrangea from the table. Hopefully it will get at least SOME shade here, it doesn't like all the sun and heat.

The thing covered with black ugly plastic is my electrical grill. I will try to come up with a fancier looking cover for it later.

A close up of the Hydrangea/Hortensia I got as a birthday gift

Parsley, starwberry and stones

The table

In these flower boxes I've planted runner beans and sweet peas/luktärt. The plants are quite gangly and unimpressive at the moment but hopefully they will start to grow soon. I also plan to add trailing lobelias/hänglobelior to the boxes later on.

A guided tour and the background

2009-05-30T16:50:00.003+02:00

Lets take a guided tour of how my balcony looks right now. It's of course not at it's prime this early in the season. In fact I haven't even re-planted the seedlings yet. If I do that too early I can't bring them in at night if it gets too cold.

My balcony is 3,5 x 1,5 meters (use Convert-me.com if you're unfamiliar with the metric system), it's facing west (which gives me WAY too much sun sometimes and makes the balcony too hot for both me and some of the plants), it's "open" on two sides and the balcony upstairs works as a roof. I moved here in the end of the summer of -06 so this will be my third summer with the balcony.

The first summer I put up trellises along most of the long side and one of the short sides (the other consists of a concrete wall separating the balcony from my neighbor's balcony), added furniture and of course a bunch of flowers and plants as well. I don't have any perennials on my balcony though, or at least none that I can keep on the balcony over the winter, so I start over every year with new plants.

Lovely pansies/penséer from the summer of -07
I've made the decorative heart myself.

The second summer (last summer) was a really bad summer from a balcony point of view since I ended up living in the middle of a construction area when they decide to build a new bridge and re-build the road outside my balcony. Everything got covered with a THICK dirt layer and there were no point in even trying to keep things cleans since it got just as bad the next day. Yuck! (And all the heavy machinery and all the road workers didn't make things more fun)

I still had a few plants that summer, like runner beans/rosenbönor and sugar peas/sockerärtor on the trellises (a must!) but not much. I managed to get hold of white runner beans this year though which I like a lot better than the orangey red I had the first summer.

See the nice, dusty piles of dirt and gravel?

Messy road work area

These photos are taken around 2-3in the night when the jackdaws
gathered on the huge crane (all the little dots on the crane are birds).

You can imagined that I really longed for this summer when I would get my balcony back! They're not completely done with all the building work though, I believe they're going to build new houses on the other side of the railway (behind the red house), but I don't think that dust will reach me. *phew*

This year I've sown more runner beans (from the white flowering beans I got from last years harvest), sugar peas and sweet peas/luktärtor. I've also bought two tomato plants (no reason to sow them yourself when you only nee two plants), I've also got 2 pelargoniums/pelargoner that's survived the winter indoors, some spring flowers borrowed from my mom's garden (that I will return to her when they've stopped flowering) and some other stuff as well. I also plan to get more plants later on.

On the table I keep this years pansies (not as fancy colored as the first summer) the hydrangea/hortensia and a big bowl of spring flowers. You can also see the tomatoes that I've just bought but not re-planted yet.

My windowsill with pelargoniums (the red one is a birthday gift), parsley/persilja and a strawberry plant (I assume my Swedish friends understands the word strawberry so no translation needed LOL) And of course some of my beloved stones. LOL

A tangled mess of seedlings, runner beans and sugar peas

The plans for this summer is first of all to plant all the seedling, to add more plants and decorations and HOPEFULLY put in new wooden flooring on top of the ugly, cold concrete floor I have now. I also look forward to documenting the balcony in the blog and sharing it with you.

Oh in case you haven't already noticed this, I CAN be a bit longwinded from time to time. Consider yourself warned! LOL

Welcome to my balcony!

2009-05-30T14:33:00.006+02:00

Since I love to take photos of my balcony I thought it was a good idea to create a blog to make it easier to show them off to family and friends. And maybe even more important, to be able to look back on my lovely balcony in the middle of the winter.

Even though I love in Sweden I've decided to blog in English since many of my friends don't speak Swedish. I'm sure I will regret this every time I try to figure out the correct English name for my flowers. And to make the language confusion worse I want to post the names in Swedish too to make more sense for my Swedish speaking readers. Oh what I started? LOL

You're very welcome to comment in the blog, even if we don't know each other. It's the interactive connection and collaboration between the blogger and the reader that makes blogs such an interesting tool. (I read and reply to comments even for older posts)