This time last year I was taking my first, tentative steps into the world of gardening. Aided by my lovely, garden-mad boyfriend and fuelled by the desire to prove to myself that even I, a well-known plant killer, could successfully grow fruit and vegetables on a balcony, I set out to discover what it means to grow your own food. It turned out to be tremendous fun as well as hard work, but the experience of planting, waiting patiently (more or less!) for the first tiny seedlings to appear, to watching them grow and then to finally being rewarded with fresh juicy strawberries, hot chillies and multicoloured carrots was well worth it.
This season, I would like to build on this experience, try new plants, maybe plan the whole thing a bit more. I have already planted various different types of tomato and chili, the garlic is coming along nicely, as are the strawberries. As my balcony garden is growing I hope I can expand this blog and eventually include pictures, tips, recipes (I need to do something with all this fruit and veg that's been taking over my balcony after all!) and anything else gardening/ food related that I find.
My first serious attempt at growing vegetables from seed: tomato "Tumbling Tom Red" , a cherry tomato suitable for hanging baskets and a nameless courgette I was given. Fingers crossed!
I planted them in a little greenhouse in my living room in mid-February, tried to remember to water them regularly and generally drove my long-suffering boyfriend mad by checking if they'd grown a bit more every five minutes. :)
Finally, last week I was able to put them outside on the balcony. It's been unseasonally warm so it didn't take long for the chili plant to join them. Now it seems that every time I look, there's something new out on the balcony!
The first courgette is almost ready as well:
Things are looking good. Now if somebody could turn off this incessant rain, that would be great. When I said I could do with a bit more rain I did NOT mean days and days of non-stop rain!
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