Meet The Balcony!

Hello!

So, whats this blog about? Theres a revolution coming in case you havent heard, and for me it appears to involve growing a patio paradise - and if I can do it anyone can!

Its interesting to talk about how to grow things, I guess we help them along if we have taken them from their homeland - they would grow themselves if we had left them where they were, ate them as needed from the wild, and then left the seeds in the earth to continue the circle of which we are a part.

I've had THREE things I've helped to grow in my life before 2021, none from seed, and each time I found I had an odd attachment to them. The first was an aloe vera plant that I received as a gift, it out grew its pot and died before I took care of it.

The second one too was gifted, a redwood tree sapling from California, this time taken care of with a little more reverence and respect. Once it got to a point where I knew I would struggle to carry it anywhere for some 'guerilla gardening' in London, I started looking for a home for it as it couldn't stay in my flat. Luckily, it found a home in the garden of a friends Mother who was quite fond of trees and had grown several on their land herself, the tree was driven from London to Cumbria to be planted there.

The third one was a lesson in hopeful perseverence. A beautiful orchid that again had been a gift. Once the flowers had left their home three years ago, there remained a small green shoot which I kept alive for two years with the organic orchid fertiliser my firend and flatmate had bought for me. Finally in 2021 it flowered like it was celebrating the year and despite the winter still has its flowers and even survived a repotting (I had worried it would meet the same demise as the aloe vera plant). I had never realised how attached you can get to them, I feel like I will water and care for the orchid unless I place it back into the Earth.

So I don’t think I quite realise what I've let myself in for here as a patio garden is a much bigger project. I've already started researching and the one thing I DO know is that theres a LOT I don’t know. It felt pretty daunting!. For example, growing potatoes. Can i grow them on my patio and in which spot, what size container, what type of container, type of soil, type of potatoe, when to grow the type you have, are some easier to grow than others, wait you have to 'chit' the potaoes first whats that ..etc etc.

After overthinking I have decided, to decide (!) what in an ideal slash realistic ish world I would want to have growing on the balcony. Then, I go about finding out weather its possible for me to do it and share my findings here. I'll try and include lots of pics to document the process. I may not cover everything, thats what professional gardeners blogs are for, see other blogs on this website and I will link to any I find useful as I come across them. I may discover things in the wrong order, in which case I'll try and reorganise the blog pages (if thats a thing) - I've never written a blog before so thats another first for me too :)

So please meet my balcony here, the only way is up as you can see!