The first real planting

Well, it's been a busy day on the balcony today. There's lots to tell you about. First things first, I have planted out some wildflower mix (so that some bees will come to visit) and in another pot, some mixed salad and rocket. I'm not sure how big these will grow - I'm a little worried that I have put too many seeds in there, but I figured that I could always pull some out.

I never believe anything will actually grow at this point..

My mum has given me this great pot for strawberries - perfect for space saving on the balcony. It holds 6 plants, and I've got 5 in there. I think the strawberries are the thing I'm most excited about growing. I always have a debate with myself about whether I like strawberries, raspberries or blackberries best, and I still haven't decided, but it doesn't matter - they are all amazing. Strawberries seem to be the easiest to grow of the 3 so that's what I've started with. 

Hands off, pigeons

I've moved some tomatoes and broccoli out of the seed trays and into small pots. It was such a delicate procedure, I was so worried about damaging them! I held them by the leaves and levered them out with a pencil. A few hours on the tomatos are looking fine, the broccoli is looking slightly peaky. I not sure I haven't moved them on too early, they had hardly any roots. I've kept the others (and there's loads) in the seed tray as a backup in case this all goes pear shaped.

Lastly, I got some new beans from poundland and I have planted those straight into pots. Let's hope this works. I wonder if beans are going to be my gardening nemesis. That would be pretty embarrasing, I remember beans were something we grew at school when I was little!

Planting begins!

Exciting news - I've planted my broccoli and tomatoes. I compacted some soil in the bottom of the trays, followed by some slightly less compact soil, gave all the pots a good soaking and put two seeds in each tray. Well, approximately two - it's quite frustrating with wet muddy hands to get the tiny seeds to go where you want. The first ones are very neat but towards the end there may have been a few missing or extra seeds per pot. Never mind, we're all friends here.

The tomatoes wanted to be covered with 6mm of soil and the broccoli with 10mm. Fussy much? I had no idea how much that was so each has a sprinkling of compost on top, with slightly more on the broccoli. I gave that a slight push down and another spray, hopefully that was right.

Strangely, I felt really bad about losing any seeds. Each one has so much potential, it's a whole plant in there waiting to get out. I hope I don't become too emotionally attached to my plants. Apparently you grow two in each pot and only keep the stronger plant, so if all these little seeds make the effort to grow, I then have to kill half of them?! This could be tricky.

My trays are currently sitting in a dark-ish place, they want a constant temperature, and once leaves start to show then I should put them in the light. They won't need any more water for a while. Fingers crossed everyone. What on earth I will do with 40 broccoli plants and 40 tomato plants if they all grow I have no idea.

I forgot to buy any of those writing-on-in-your-best-handwriting labels what you just planted. But it's ok, I'm 90% sure which side is tomatoes and which side is broccoli. So now we wait :) I'll keep you posted...

They're in there somewhere