Flower inspiration

Now that it's decided that I shall no longer be nurturing a nursury on our balcony, I've started looking at nice ways to introduce flowers (so far no luck with the Namaqua flowers - it's like they sprouted and then just got sick of growing).

A friend at work appeared like inspiration sent from above. Just look at this gorgeous bunch of flowers from her garden that she brought me:

When I grow up, I want to have a garden that can do that!

I leave with you with some inspirations from my Pinterest board...

Some flower and pot inspirations

nice for all the nasturtiums I've grown - and I'd love to add cabbage to the balcony (though I've heard they attract bugs)

And I found this on my last visit to the garden centre. Look at the size of those salad leaves!

my husband..

....is accusing me of running a nursery instead of decorating our balcony.

And...

...at this point, I agree.

If one more seedling decides to rear it's sneaky little head, I'm throwing it off the balcony. That's it.

this is what obsessed looks like

this is what an empty garden centre parking lot looks like: 

i know this, and have this picture, because that's how i spent my morning. I was waiting for the garden centre  to open so I could get bags of soil and more of those wonderfully cheap lbb's (little black bags) because i STILL haven't transplanted all the seedlings. 

I felt very much like a garden geek, until I spotted these guys, who were there before me:  

that's until I realized they probably work there... 

one question

Why did nobody tell me how many plants a single seed packet can produce?
What am I going to do with all these plants?
Am I responsible for them just because they all decided to sprout?

Ok so that's more than one question. But I've solved it - those that don't die will go to a market that I'm attending in Hermanus in December and I started transplanting them this weekend...

And here they are, ready to grow nice and big for market day:

In the meantime, I've decided to give those I can't look after away to colleagues who will kindly sponsor some containers. I wasn't prepared for all the yoghurt containers I've received, but I'm just happy the tomato babies are getting happy homes:

Guess what I'm doing tonight? More transplanting. Moral of the story?

• Don't plant so many seeds (not even one packet is little enough - my balcony can only hold about a quarter of the seeds from that one tomato packet!)
• Don't plant them so close together that you have to find a hundred containers within a week or two after they've sprouted just to ensure they don't kill each other off.

Garden meal number 2

Right, so you can't technically see anything from the garden in this dish, but I will have you know that it contains thyme and origanum. It was yum!

Chicken, butternut and feta couscous. Mmmm...

Herb worries

These two herbs are sick, I'm sure. First, the sweet rocket has turned a funny colour and his leaves have holes in them. Worrying to say the least :(

(this photo isn't great either)

And then the opal basil has turned an offish colour. I think it's unhappy with the soil.

See those funny whitish spots on him? Not good. I think I'll be researching my herb worries this weekend.

Seedling progress

Almost all the seeds have sprouted now. All we're waiting for is the spinach...

And look how big the parsley's got! Interesting to see that the Namaqua flower seedlings have now turned purple... Not sure if this is normal?

I can't wait for them to bloom/be big plants!

awesome market

I'm going to find a market like this... and then I'm going to paint this sign on our garden wall:

(from thesometimeszoo)

gardens i admire

I don't know how many of you are on Pinterest, but here are some pics from a board I made that I thought you might like.

Nice one from Life on the Balcony.

Atmosphere atmosphere atmosphere. Oh how I'd love to share that couch with the cat...
See the entire board here.

Budding Parsley

The parsley babies are here! Hand reared in ice-cream containers for five days only - can you believe it?

Success!

The first seeds have sprung! (is that even a word?). I think I forgot to mention these - perhaps because I was worried that they wouldn't grow - but on the first weekend when we planted the herbs in the herb box, I also sowed some Namaqua flowers from a free sample seed packet I got in a magazine. I wasn't so sure they'd grow, as it was cloudy and cold the first few days after I sowed them. When the first green things showed their heads, I didn't want to get too excited - it could, after all, just be the weed seeds that sometimes end up in potting soil. BUT this morning I checked on them again and this is how I know they are flowers and not weeds:

1. they are all growing in the area where my hand slipped when I was trying to sprinkle them evenly
2. they all look the same - no other random leaves poking out.

This is pretty exciting. We went to the Cederberg a few weeks ago just to see the flowers and for those who don't know, this is what Namaqua flowers look like in the wild veld:

Whoops, sorry, that's just me freaking out over the flowers.

Umm.. that's not the flowers either. That's hubby's reaction to my jumping.

Now this is what you call flowers. Beautiful, eh? (Hubby took this pic).

And finally, here are our baby Namaqua flower plants. I'd jump over them too, only then I'd fall off the balcony.