Gardening

Balcony Garden
Originally uploaded by allisongryski

We've lived in our flat for 3 years now and had 3 different downstairs neighbours. None of them have ever tended the little patch of earth next to our steps that's just outside their gate. I cleared it out once and the previous tenant said she was planning to plant impatiens, so I left it be, but she never did and it grew all weedy again. Last year, the new tenants tended the rest of the overgrown yard and I thought they might do something with it, so I left it. This year, despite attention to the rest of the yard, it remained neglected, so I decided that it was time to strike with a little guerilla gardening. I should have taken a "before" picture because it was a horribly tangled rectangle of grasses and weeds that looked appalling. Now, it's neatly planted with some perennial ground cover (creeping thyme, veronica, and saponaria) and a few petunias. Perennials mean that it should be nice again next year, with no further attention and ground cover should hopefully deal with most of the weed problem. The neighbours seem to approve as they've watered it and helpfully added some woodchips around the plants.

I also planted up my own balcony garden ... mostly pots of flowers, one tomato plant, and some herbs. I've tried other edibles over the years (saladry, carrots, beets, spinach, swiss chard), but I've been most successful with tomatoes and herbs. I'm trying to make the front balcony a riot of flowers this year to maximize the enjoyment of sitting out at my bistro table. I have a number of morning glory seedlings that I hope will trail all over the railings, though they sure looked unhappy going in (if I have to plant new ones, I won't have gained anything from starting them inside in April). You can see more pictures in my Gardening set and I'll be adding more as it fills out over the summer.