The story so far (month 3)

Hello bloggers. I've been away so much this month, it's all a bit quiet from me. Here's a little round-up of what's been going on.

There's been a little harvest! Unfortunately I think that any harvests I will have will be little. My peas have been producing the most output of anything here, but still not that much. One of my bean plants has not produced any beans yet. Loads of flowers but no beans. Boo.

Look at these little beauties! They are so sweet and tasty. I love them!

However, all is not well on the balcony. Look at my peas...they are covered in white fungus the leaves are dying from the bottom up. I'm heartbroken! I love my peas - the flowers were beautiful and the peas were so tasty. I think I am going to have to throw them away.

They have actually gone downhill a lot over the weekend since I took this photo. All but the top leaves are yellow now and the leaves and pods have white mould on them. Sob! I don't think I can save them now but if anyone has any tips as to what I've done wrong here I would really appreciate it. Personally I am going to blame it on the neighbours :)

Here's something nice though. I read Martin's blog at The Good Life where he had a pepper which didn't germinate until he put it in the greenhouse. I have 4 yellow peppers which also wouldn't germinate, so a week or so ago I moved them to the sunniest windowsill we have, and look what's happened...

One out of 4! Thanks for the tip guys. It's a real shame about my peas, but you live and learn. The tomatoes are STILL green, but don't worry - you'll be the first to know when they're edible!

I hope you all had great weekends :)

More infrastructure

My job for today was to add in some more support for my beans. They have grown happily up the netting but they obviously want to grow higher, so I've added a few more poles to keep them happy.

While I was out there I spotted a lot of small beans, but hiding away at the back was one full size bean :) 

It's at the back in a sort of L shape!

I also have lots of peas growing but only about 2 pods which are ready - I don't know whether these can stay out until there's enough for more than a spoonful....but to be honest I am too excited to wait, I will just probably pick them to see what they are like!

Hurry up peas!

I hope everyone is having a lovely weekend!

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.

Ode to peas

In with my Poundland beans were some Early Onward peas. I was doing a bit of research on what to do with them, and I discovered some great pea-related facts:

1. Mendel basically discovered genetics by breeding peas

2. Peas used to be called pease

3. The oldest pea ever found was in Burma, and it was 3000 years old

4. Thick London smog was called pea-soup because it was slightly green in colour

5. On average everyone in Britain eats 9,000 peas a year (I am certainly not pulling my weight)

6. There is an etiquette to eating peas - you are supposed to squash them on the back of a fork. (This cannot be conducive to eating peas very quickly, but could be fun.)

I mainly have to thank peas.org for these amazing facts. The also had a great recipe for ham, cheese and pea muffins. Here's my current effort - rather tiny right now but growing really quickly.