Chilli testing

Before I get onto the chillies, just look at this picture. What IS this???!!! 

I would love if I could just have a few bees visit my balcony. I am not asking for bluetits and bunny rabbits. And what do I get? Dead pigeons, earwigs and some kind of hornet-beetle hybrid designed purely to scare the living daylights out of me.

On to happier things. Look what's growing!

Tiny baby runner beans! It's so exciting!

We also plucked up the courage to try the chillies tonight. You can eat them at any point - I mainly want to wait until the fruits are red as then they have a slightly sweeter taste. Before this, when they are very dark green they are at their hottest. I had a glass of cold white wine on hand for emergencies!

Would you be scared yet?

You've probably gathered that I'm a complete wimp with spicy things so recruited my other half to try them first, although I have to take his descriptions with a pinch of salt - what he calls "warm" would probably leave me with no taste buds for 3 days. We started with the anaheim and it was actually edible - the skin was hardly hot at all, the seeds were hot but not unbearably so. Then the jalapeno - now that really was hot. Even the b/f thought so and we classed it as too hot for tonight's Thai green curry. The anaheim made the cut though!

Hopefully I can improve my tolerance for chillies this summer!

The story so far (month 2)

It's a gorgeous sunny morning on the balcony today and the perfect time to take stock of how my little growing project is going.

My tomatoes are a great success. I took a good look at them yesterday and discovered I had missed a few side shoots which had turned into large stems. I performed a bit of surgery and they are looking better now. There's lots of flowers on all 3 plants and some fruits forming. They are growing visibly every day.

The chillies are also thriving, they love their sunny spot, it's the hottest place in the house. There are so many flowers and fruits forming I can't even keep up. They are still green at the moment (I am pretty sure they will turn red when ripe) - it shouldn't be long before we can pick these.

Similarly the beans and peas. They seem to love the netting and are growing happily.

My strawberries are a little healthier since the trim, I haven't lost any more leaves so that's a bonus. Still, I find myself quite indifferent to them now and I don't even know if I should make the effort to keep them for next year. 

I've got more salad on the go - something a little milder this time because the spicy mix was so strong we could hardly eat it by the end. This one is a mild green mix, and sown in nice neat rows this time so that they are easier to thin out!

Also my sunflower kit has produced 2 healthy plants, I'm looking forward to seeing how they turn out - I love sunflowers. It's all quiet on the chilli kit front, although I did plant those a little later.

P.S. A note on blogging

I had never blogged before 2 months ago when I started my little balcony garden and this blog, and I am thoroughly enjoying both. I find blogging therapeutic, creative (especially the photography) and the perfect way to record the developments of my gardening. But the best part about it by far has been the comments and messages from other gardeners - help, advice or just a friendly "hello" from people all over the world. Thank you to everyone who has read my blog, given me advice or wished me well, I really appreciate it and I love reading all of your blogs too.

More flowers and other happenings

There are some amazing things happening on my balcony. Here's a couple more flowers you haven't seen yet...

Runner Beans

Tomatoes

Lavender

Look at my pea plants - I find this incredible. It's reaching out to grab onto anything it can, and it's growing up the net nicely. Things like this always brings me back to the question "how do they know how to do this?" I am really enjoying seeing this stuff happen on a daily basis.

This is the most exciting news though, there are real, actual, proper chillies and tomatoes growing. Look!

Note to self: stop taking so many close up photos on new camera, remember to get the bigger picture too!