Tomatoes where? Well I'll be darned...

Yep, just when you least expect it, just when you'd given up all but the most fleeting moments of hope...

I'd brought this plant in from my balcony at the beginning of the winter since it was still fairly young (was basically a cutting from another plant that had taken root too late in the season). I didn't really know what I had in mind to do with it, but I found this little perch for it by the balcony door and kept watering it all winter (albeit from time to time quite sparingly).

Half of it even got attacked by aphids (as you can see, I need to pinch off those dead leaves), but it stayed green all winter, surprisingly! I didn't think it would get enough sun sitting here to live.

But maybe tomatoes have a hibernation phase?

Low and behold, a few weeks ago, the little sucker sprouted some blooms! Once again hopeful and a bit surprised, I gently shook and rattled the branches in a pollination attempt. Guess it worked because....

Now I have this!

indoor tomato, about 2 in. diameter

 I really didn't expect that! And then, more blooms! And this (just noticed today!):

another tomato, about half an inch wide

Am I gonna get an indoor tomato crop? Wow! What a pleasant waiting-for-spring surprise! Not only did I not think the cutting would bloom at all, but it has produced fruit....indoors? I mean, it is at least protected from wind here, and I guess it didn't need quite as much sun as I'd thought.

Inspires me to try some other experiments!

Hope dies last - a new year, a new season

Are you already planning your garden for this year?

I hope so! I am a bit late getting things going, but here's to a (hopefully) much less meager harvest than last year:

my radish harvest from late-July 2013

While this is an exaggeration of how small my harvest from last year was, it is only a slight one. After all, I did get a few more radishes, some herbs, some green onions, about a handful of beans and peas, and 2 tiny jalapenos...or, as one would say on Skype:

(Skype (facepalm), i.e. hand to stern, shake head)

IF you will remember - last year's garden went very far awry thanks to the construction on my building which lasted ALL summer, leaving not only dust and rubble in my planters but blocked off any sunlight I could have gotten! Am hoping for the best - as they say here, "hope is the last thing to die", which I find very applicable!

In the next post you will see how I got a head start on this season!

Pictures / Overview of this year's balcony vegetable garden so far!

This year's balcony vegetable garden so far!

So! I'll get right to it, the moment you've been waiting for - I present: this year's vegetable garden, balcony-style!

Here you can also see the approx. size of my balcony. I wanted to leave room for a table and 2 chairs, as well as for not only the plants to grow, but spots for more pots, such as some chili plants that are not ready to go outside yet. I got a few plants transplanted this week (zucchinis, tomatoes, chilis), and seeds out last week, and as you can see, some have already come up! Exciting! It's been pretty crappy weather lately, pretty rainy and not all that warm, but I'm hoping things will shape up soon and I will see some germination in my peas and pole beans.

Herbs (from left to right): lemon balm, cilantro, mint; chives, rosemary, parsley; oregano, sage, thyme. The far left pot are plants I bought and transplanted, as well as was the rosemary, since mine didn't survive the winter after all.

My lettuce was a paper band of seed, with 3 varieties of leaf lettuce: Batavia Lettuce "Teide", Leaf Lettuce "Grand Rapids", and Leaf Lettuce "Lollo Bionda". Three kinds in one planter, it's great! And the bands make it really easy to plant.

I also now prefer red onions (here "piroska") because of their milder flavor, which are also great picked and eaten as green onions!

I decided to try something else new this year, micro greens, here the "mild mix - Brassica and Amaranthus", from Botanical Interests! I'd seen a package at the seed store last summer, and it just seemed appetizing. It's basically a mix of various seeds (such as red beets, cabbage, kohlrabi, pak choi, and swiss chard) that are meant to be planted together and harvested once they reach about 1-3 inches. I'm hoping they all grow at the same rate! I may also let them get a little bigger. They'll be great to top salads, in sandwiches, or on crackers with cream cheese!

The only other non-standard items are my pole beans - they are purple ones, which also bear pretty purple flowers. They are pretty much the same consistency when ripe of a normal green bush bean, but are deep purple in color. Here, "blauwschediger spek".

Here's how my window sill inside (right next to my balcony) is looking so far:

Here you can see a few chili plants (jalapeno, purple jalapeno) in the front, a basil plant, an aloe vera plant (which won't go outside), and my greenhouse, which is home to an extra tomato plant and my "white lightning" habanero chilis, which seem to be growing very slowly. I suspect they need a lot of heat, so I'm keeping them in the greenhouse as long as possible. I'm also glad I decided to keep a jalapeno and purple jalapeno plant indoors - the ones outside are looking a bit beaten up, probably due to wind and cold temps. Plus, something ate off a few leaves on both plants! I don't think it was my cat, so bird? Squirrel??

Things are definitely shaping up in my edible balcony paradise, now let's all hope for some warmth!

Trees are abloom and buds are opening!

The trees are finally sprouting leaves and blooming - I thought the day would never come! Here a few pics of what's blooming (from last week, sorry, didn't get a chance to post them then):

Forsythia

not the best pic, but was *covered* in white blooms!

possibly flowering crab apple...

...flowering crab apple?

no, not caterpillars! These dropped off of a tree!

Three specimens with buds in the middle of opening up right outside my apartment window this week:

weeping willow

Pics from a spring walk in the park

I recently had about an hour to kill before a kiddie concert I had to play, so what better opportunity to explore the nearby park than that? It was in a city (well, more like a village) that I'd never really seen much of before, so I was curious to look around a bit and was up for some fresh air that morning.

I went off on a path behind the concert hall and first came upon this: a windmill!!! Cool! I don't know if it was still in operation, but if it were it would have been cool to buy some flour ground with it!

Around the corner from that I walked a bit and came across a river with some nice walking paths:

 There were some pretty flowers planted along the river bank:

daffodils

???

you know this one! :)

 ...and lots of little flowers showing their colors in the grass:

And there were a few man-made structures, as well as some kiddies playing outside the concert hall before the concert!

a nice wooden playground!

real classy...not

My little nature get-away! :)

Cherry Blossoms abound!

One of the first trees to bloom here in northern Germany is the Japanese cherry tree! Its beautiful, lush, soft pink flowers are a definite sign of the arrival of spring!

These non-fruit producing trees can be spotted from afar (especially and are very symbolic in Japanese culture, and are thus celebrated in many different countries, even here in Germany! Hamburg, for example, has a big firework display put on by the German-Japanese society near the Alster, a lake-like body of water downtown, very beautiful and festive!

We even have a cherry tree for our own enjoyment right outside of our work building - here are few pics (taken from my phone) - Happy Spring!!!

Indoor Seedling Progess (with pics)!

So, after about 2 weeks in my little greenhouse, sitting on warm windowsill with full afternoon sun, my seedlings are taking off! Have a look (see this previous post for what the plants are / before pic)!

As you'll notice, some of everything has come up so far, so I'm excited about that. You can't see it due to a big zucchini leaf hiding it, but the upper right corner also has a little chili seedling growing there - just came up a day or two ago. The chilis (everything to the right of the zucchinis) did take the longest to germinate, but I don't mind waiting...as long as they show up I'm happy!

As you can see, I also have a cherry tomato and a large tomato sprouting their second leaves already,which is also happening on the zucchini plants. It better start warming up outside soon so I can get these plants out! Otherwise may have to re-pot them indoors, since especially the zucchinis are running out of room (and overtaking everything).

I also thought that since I planted 2 seeds per hole and both sets came up, I would try to save the extras and give away to friends (since I probably won't have enough space on my balcony for them), so here are the "leftovers":

I just carefully wiggled it out of the moist soil when it was a few inches tall from its hole partner and stuck it in a little shot glass with some water - wasn't sure if there was too much root damage for it to survive, but I figured it was worth a shot! At it seemed to work! The second one (in the background) is trying really hard to recover being half-eaten by a certain cat that dwells here.... :)

The season has now officially begun

sprouted zucchini plant, a few days old

I would just like to announce that the edible balcony garden season has now begun!!!

The winner of the germination challenge is: zucchini! It sprouted within days!

A close second goes to: the tomatoes! One of each kind has showed itself.

And a few days later, the jalapeno plants decided to come up, much sooner than I'd expected. Germination on the other chili plants was described to be 10-14 days, so they're a whole week ahead of the game.

As soon as it starts to warm up (not really a start in sight, and it is still below freezing at night here, ugh, when is winter gonna be over?!), I will start some seeds outdoors, such as radishes,  (red) onion bulbs, and lettuce.

Will also get a few new herb plants to fill the holes in my one planter - sorry, not growing herbs from "scratch" this year, it just takes too long and the warm season here is pretty short! Luckily it looks like several of my herbs have survived yet another winter, such as my already-regrowing chives, rosemary, parsley (!), thyme, sage, and oregano. Great! Don't know if my lemon balm made it through the wintery past few weeks, but if not, I would like to replace it and get some basil and some mint. I have a hard plastic separator that I use to keep the mint roots from taking over the whole pot - basically just a piece of plastic that separates the soil.

Hope it starts warming up soon!

Seeds started, no April Fool's joke!

seeds started in my mini greenhouse

I hope everyone had a nice Easter weekend! I did - finally got some seeds started a few days ago, and here are the results!

• #1 and #2- cherry tomatoes
• #3 and #4 - tomatoes, bottom one is actually a variety made for pots
• #5 and #6 - zucchini
• #7 and #8 - "white lightning" habanero chili peppers
• #9 and #10 - purple jalapenos
• #11 and #12 - jalapenos

So excited! I had ordered a few kinds of chili pepper seeds last summer from Amazon, but since they came late I decided to hold onto them until this year. Am looking forward to seeing how they do - I have had a fair amount of luck with chili peppers on my balcony in the past few years, so I am excited to try a few different kinds of fresh chilis - the taste of the actually pepper is amazing!

I decided to forgo and cucumbers or squash this season for two reasons:

1. I haven't had any of my squash plants bloom, ever!
2. I think I need bigger pots for squash and cucumber, but I'm not sure that I want to sacrifice the space for a plant that may not produce again!
3. It's too windy on my balcony for vertical gardening, so there is little space for the vines even IF they had bigger pots

zucchini flowers (front in a box)
sold at Campo de Fiori outdoor market, Rome

Nonetheless, I am going to try zucchini again - not giving up on that quite yet! I did get a few to come last year, but were very small (like 3-4 inches long), but I got lots of flowers.

My thought is that if I can tell that the vegetables aren't going to get bigger, I can just eat the flowers! On my trip to Rome with my mom last May, we got to try fried zucchini blooms, a local specialty. I've heard of them served filled with cream cheese, but what we tried were just lightly dusted with flour and deep (or pan?) fried. We even saw where you could buy them with the mini zucchini still attached - at the Campo de Fiori outdoor market in Rome. They look to be about the size that I have produced on my balcony.

A special treat! Here's a recipe from About.com to try, or a stuffed version from food & style. Can't wait!

State Garden Show...A Photomemoir

Despite a fresh snowfall, spring fever is starting to really hit me hard. After all, it is the end of February, which mean it's time to do my planning and even start a few seeds indoors soon! Woohoo!

*Note - this is a post about non-edible plants, but just as inspiring to the gardener's soul!

Landesgartenschau 2011
The State Garden Show here in northern Germany was here in town 2 years ago, hard to believe it's that long ago already! Never the less, it was a great display of beautiful flowers and plants from the region. Not only was it a nice way to spend an early Fall day (I went toward the end on October 3rd), but a chance to surround yourself by themed beds and a taste of garden life in the city. Here's some of my favorites from my photo attempts (click on each to enlarge):

Lots of gorgeous specimens...check out the cabbage-family plant lower left!

 

Big, beautiful beds as far as the eye could see!

A memoir of Fall....

One of my favorite themed beds (Fall, length-wise view). I really like the mix of dark leaves and orange and pastel flowers.

Fall-themed bed, view more from the side - gotta love the texture and color combinations here!

A Spring-themed bed - great warm colors!

Another eye-catching themed bed - love those dark purples and light greens together!

I enjoyed the themed beds the most (the last 3 pics) - they were displayed on the edge of the show grounds, in a very natural setting, in long beds surrounded by natural grasses. And the hue/texture combinations were impressive. Nothing like enjoying beautifully-landscaped beds at twilight....

And most importantly! This post is here not only as a nice inspiration for spring planning, but also as mental preparation for....

The International Garden Show 2013!

I cannot wait for this! And I'm lucky enough to have it take place right here in Hamburg!! This year's IGS opens on April 26th and has an "Around the World in 80 Gardens" theme - sounds exciting! Only 60 days left!

Not only will the grounds be filled with live music, theater, and outdoor exercise courses (yoga, qi gong, etc.), but there's also opportunities for kids and the whole family as well as tasty treat from an international kitchen.

And of course the main events - the plants, oh the plants! Some areas of the park: World of Ports, World of Religions, Rose Boulevard, Miniature Gardens, Forest House, Cultural Landscapes, World of Water, United Nations Park, World of Continents, and many more!

From the looks of it, I'm gonna have to go a few times ;)

So I'm looking forward to a fun-filled spring with events, planting, and growing!

Squirrel in the City

European Red Squirrel

Who says just because you live in the city, or have *just* a balcony garden, you don't get to attract and admire wildlife? Well, whoever it is is wrong, very wrong!

Despite being on the corner of my building, and despite it being quite windy up here, I have been able to experience a multitude of different kinds of wildlife on my little balcony paradise! Despite Punxsutawney Phil's forcast the other day, I sit bundled up in my apartment, waiting for spring and longing for a nice and lush, green balcony, where I can enjoy a nice dinner with freshly-picked herbs and vegetables and look out at sunrise over the skyline....

I digress - unfortunately do think it is a little to early to allow myself to be consumed with thoughts of Spring and gardening outdoors on my balcony in a warm breeze, but that doesn't mean there isn't anything out there running or flying around that can't be taken care of and enjoyed!

You wonder how a squirrel made it to my 4th floor balcony? This is not the first time, but an explanation is there - the tree only a few yards from my balcony, separating our building from the neighboring one. It's a weeping willow type tree, not too tall to block the sun but tall (and dense) enough to provide a natural curtain in the summer from the neighbor's curiosities. The tree is also inviting as stopping point for birds on the go around the neighborhood, as well as squirrels, so they also jump/hop/flutter over to my balcony for a bite to eat as well. This squirrel even stayed still long enough for me to get close enough for this photo, wow!

Last Winter was better for them since I left more plants to go to seed on my balcony than I did last year, providing the birds and squirrels with lots of food and shelter. Not only did I receive visits from a few red  squirrels (the variety they have over here, also less abundant and smaller than in the USA), but also a variety of colorful birds! Yellow, red, brown, they came in many colors. I think they were finches (possibly a Greenfinch) and different types of swallows and warblers, but I also get some bigger birds like the black-billed magpie, also common to the area.

I saw that one of my neighbors hung a little suet bag on their balcony, maybe I will do the same! My little wildlife nature preserve! :) Come birdies, come! And come Spring, come!

Dehner Garden Center

After driving back from an appointment I had today, I saw a HUGE garden center on the way, and of course had to stop....

and it was fantastic!


I'd previously only done my garden shopping in town, where the best option I've found so far is Max Bahr (kinda like a Home Depot type of store). While the seed and accessory selection is somewhat limited, you can get various kinds of soil, some plants, and your basic needs.

At Dehner, I felt like I'd died and gone to heaven! I was in awe. Greenhouses, seeds, fertilizers, plants (incl. exotic ones), garden supplies, my oh my! And it was really huge. Of course I stocked up on some things I really needed - an all-purpose liquid fertilizer, a water can, some red onion bulbs (going to try them this year for the first time), 3 succulents (for a pot indoors), and a philodendron for inside as well.

I really restrained myself.

But now I know where to go for the good stuff!

Welcome!

Happy Spring!

I love Spring, it means new beginnings and fresh starts! And best of all, gardening! Can't help but to get excited about what my seedlings will bear. Yet, believe it or not, I've been gone and busy and have not yet started my garden for the year. Time to get started!

Part of getting stared this year was creating this blog, geared toward people interesting gardening in a big city, or just some stories! I was surprised to find out that I know lots of people who, upon hearing that I like to grow veges on my balcony, were also interested in this but didn't have a clue where to start...maybe here's the place for that.

I also spend a good part of the year growing, tending to, thinking about, and enjoying my balcony garden, and hope that my stories inspire (or at least somewhat entertain) you!


As always, I am up for trying new things.

One new challenge for my garden this year - building or getting some sort of trellis for my squash plants to climb up. Haven't attempted this yet, and need some ideas of how to build it and secure it to my cement wall.

At best, the squash will be sharing this wall with some pole beans...at worst it all falls apart or they get in a fight and kill each other...

Take a look at my past gardens to see how they've turned out the past few years and what I've attempted.

Feel free to visit some of my picks of gardening on the web as well for more inspiration!


Also important...feel free to contact me at bhornk (at) yahoo (dot) com if you have anything you'd like me to post about or have anything you'd like to say!

Enjoy!