Tuesday, December 15, 2009

Garden Bloggers Blooms Day December

Wow the 15th of the month rolls around quickly. For me it means rent day, but for most of you garden bloggers, myself included, it means something far more fun, Garden bloggers blooms day. Well it is December, and according to the weatherman we are set for a scorcher tomorrow; up to 40 degrees or so and windy as hell. Last time it was windy the sunflowers took a real beating. Ultimately they ended up looking like this specimen below, just exquisite for garden bloggers blooms day (note the sarcasm.)


Luckily the multiheaded sunflower still had a few more buds and was able to redeem itself. The balcony is quite green at the moment (except for the wilting tomatoes) although that is probalby set to change once the heat sets in to stay. Still if you know where to look there are blooms. Snap dragons secretly hide, blooming only for those who know where to look (blurry camera problems means you only get pictures of three but there are six seperate small pots dotted around the place.)


The cornflower is a beautiful bolt of blue in the back of the balcony garden. Oh and although it is slightly/very/extremely late in the season I planted some black cornflower seeds (that one's for you Fern!!!) and some pink cornflower seeds (inspired by Grace's uber pink garden) and some white ones (for all you northern hemisphere folks stuck in the snow) just to see if they can add some amazing colour to the balcony.


As for veggies, the zucchini is constantly flowering, again still only girl flowers, but by the looks of it some boys are soon to arrive.


Alas I cannot say the same for the cucumbers which are girl flowers and girl flowers only. I'm waiting for them to put up a 'keep out boys' sign on their potted clubhouse.



The beans are finally flowering after surviving snail attacks and an early spell of hot weather. I have both purple bush beans and regular bush beans, though the white ones are definitely far more compact.


Of course the tomatoes continue to flower, but I am having real problems getting them to set fruit due to their wilt. Some do well, others, less well but at least they keep flowering so it means I can keep trying with my pollinating electric toothbrush and sheer determination.


Lastly I turn to the basil. All of the basils have gone to flower, early, so grrrrr. But this is normal and I keep putting more seeds in as we go and pulling off the flowers when I see them to give the growing basil a little more time. Except for the spicy basil, which I don't mind flowering because I rarely use it in large quantities and the purple/white flowers on the green plant are just too pretty.

8 comments:

Darla said...

Very nice blooms...waiting on my cornflowers to bloom..

Helen said...

From the look of your blooms, I think you're going to have to change the name of your blog to the Totally Ept Balcony Gardener.

Dan said...

Lots of nice colour Prue, very nice.

Dreamybee said...

LOL-I have completely anthropomorphized your sunflower, and now I am cracking myself up imagining how hard it tried to be presentable for its pictures, hanging on for dear life to that last little petal! ("Maybe if I comb it over like this...")

Sorry.

It looks like you have a great little garden going on there on your balcony!

PJ said...

Darla - hope they turn out well. Snails just ate my new pink ones, grrrr.

Helen - hehe possibly, though I always have new things to learn, plus the iroy is rather fun.

Dan - thanks! Hoping they don't all turn to brown too quickly once the heat hits.

Dreamybee - heheheh, your comment totally cracked me up! Love it. I wonder where you find 'toupee petals' for a sunflower in need. Garden is good though slightly wilty at times.

Meredith said...

That's a lovely balcony garden. You clearly know what you're doing (well, as much as any gardener ever does!) and your plants enjoy your loving care. I'll cross my fingers for some boy-blossoms on the cukes; that must be incredibly frustrating!!

Rosie Nixon Fluerty said...

amazing what you can grow on a balcony. I really like the flowers from your veggies.

joco said...
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