Little old lady flowers

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:

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

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.

All Hallows' Eve

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

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!

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.

Night frost and harvest

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.