GARDEN JOURNAL

Balcony Garden Progress

After a couple of weekends of attention, the balcony garden is shaping up. The alpine troughs are starting to bloom. In fact draba and iris have bloomed and faded. Alpine clematis is in full bloom right now. The ‘Spring Fever’ Iceland Poppies are budded out. And the ferns are unfurled and looking lovely.

Greens are starting to sprout and a couple of herb pots are planted. The mint pot this year includes chocolate, pineapple and apple mint with peppermint. Another fragrant herb pot includes boxwood basil, flat leaf dark Italian parley and lemon balm. And Purple Carpet creeping thyme is nestled in with English thyme in another container. The container with the basil is In the living room until it gets a little warmer at night.

It’s coming together.

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Under the Hood

After greens, tomatoes are one of my favourite edibles to grow on the balcony. My plants are tucked under cloches right now, so all I have to worry about is too much heat instead of too much cold. Which unfortunately is appropriate for this time of year.

Tomatoes are relatively easy to grow. I don’t start tomatoes from seed because of limited space in the apartment, so each season, I buy three or four plants.

Tomatoes are vigorous growers. Mine are planted in my three largest clay pots that measure 33 cm (13 inches) across and 30.5 cm (12 inches) deep. I know my containers will be a solid mass of roots by the end of the growing season. Tomatoes are heavy feeders so I don’t reuse soil in my tomato containers. Half soilless, half compost is what I start fresh with each spring and then I top dress with compost throughout the growing season. Tomatoes are sensitive to our cool spring evenings. With daytime temperatures between 15-25°C right now but night time temperatures dropping to 3-8°C it’s still a little early here to set out tomatoes without some protection – especially if you have just brought them home from the nursery.

I always grow the tried and true variety Sun Gold (indeterminate, hybrid), a guaranteed heavy producer with wonderful taste – and the perfect snack for a hard-working gardener. New to the balcony garden this year is Healthy Kick (determinate, hybrid), a plum tomato. This one caught my attention at the greenhouse because of its dark green foliage. It looked so healthy, it got to come home. I’ve since read both good and bad reviews of this variety, so time and taste will tell in August.

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Succession Planning and Planting

I have a three-container cycle going this year with my greens on the balcony garden. I’m planting in clay troughs that measure 51 cm (20 inches) long by 23 cm (9 inches) wide by 20 cm (8 inches) deep.

The mesclun greens, pea sprouts, spinach, cress and radish sprouts take about 30 days to be salad-ready so a simple 10-day planting cycle is the plan. And the seeds kinda set the pace. When the first container starts to sprout, it’s probably about 10-12 days, so it’s time to plant another container. The amount that I’m planting should be enough for a week of greens. The containers get east exposure, so although the growth rate might be a little slower, the greens won’t start going to seed before I get a chance to harvest.

And when you follow a continuous planting (and harvesting) strategy you have lots of opportunity to switch it up and plant a variety of greens to blend and mix for each meal.

Pretty simple.

And just a footnote to my Grow Up post  I’ve added a Dropmore Scarlet Honeysuckle to my climbers list. A promise of summer-long blooms was the tease. I’ve never grown this one before, so I’ll see how it settles in. And although it is considered hardy for Zone 2, it’s doubtful it will winter over.

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Mix and Match Colour

Although I’m not a fan of show off, multi-colour tulips, if you are going to use them go for it. This is a pretty catching seasonal colour combo planting – while the tulips last – at the New York Botanical Gardens. Nice use of ornamental grass too.

By contrast, the tiny species tulips in the NYBG rock garden are in bloom and displayed in small drifts or as part of an underplanting in the dappled shade. Same colours, just as spectacular, but more subtle in colour.

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Next Balcony Bloom

The alpine clematis in the trough wintered-over perfectly and are now getting ready to bloom.

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Success at the Sale

Spent the weekend planning and planting on the balcony. Scored a few new plants for the troughs at the annual CRAGS sale.

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Balcony Garden Birding

We had the good fortune to see a special visitor on the balcony Sunday morning.

Google tells me that this is probably a male Northern Flicker, a type of woodpecker. He was perched on one of the troughs cracking open peanuts. I’d found a number of unshelled peanuts buried in the containers this spring and now I know who might have been responsible.

The screen was closed, so the first pics have a grid texture on them. By the time we quietly opened the screen, the peanut had been eaten and the Flicker was ready to flee.

At least this visitor is more to scale with the troughs than the pair of neighbourhood Canada geese.

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Brooklyn Blooms

If you are in New York in the next week or two and visit the Brooklyn Botanical Gardens, you’ll see the end of the cherry and apple blossoms.

And the full bloom of the the Bluebell Wood. It was just starting to show its colour around the edges when I visited last week.

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First Balcony Garden Bloom

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Sale and Seed Session Coming Up

The Calgary Rock and Alpine Garden Society will host their annual plant sale this Saturday, May 11. The sale takes place at the Lakeview Community Hall, 6110 – 34 Street SW and runs from 1-3PM. Look for local growers, like Stephanie and Ron, as well as specialty nurseries, like Rundle Wood Gardens and Beaver Creek Greenhouses – they all will be there with a great selection of plants suited for our local growing conditions.

And speaking of Rundle Wood, Rodney and Llyn have new hours this year for the garden that are worth noting. In May they are open Thursday, Friday, Saturday and Sunday. Same days in June up until June 23. Then they are closed until July 18, 19, 20 and 21. Check the website for hours and location. This small nursery is worth a visit – the garden is impressive.

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