Balcony Garden Update 1

As some of you may have noticed over time, plants frequently have a tendency to grow. It seems that my plants are fitting in quite nicely with this world-wide trend in plant development, sometimes much to my surprise.

As you may recall, some number of weeks ago I planted a number of different types of vegetables in pots on our balcony. Amazingly, most of these have started to show some signs of growth, and some seem even seem to be flourishing.



The tomatoes in the left of this picture continue to grow, though I am sure that the pots they are in are much too small and have too many plants. I am particularly impressed that one, if not two, of the plants seem to be showing growth that look as though they will turn into blooms. The plants in the green pot were purchased today from the local grocery store gardening centre. I am hoping that the pot I have put them isn't too small, though I am pretty sure it is.

The bay laurel, though it is difficult to tell from this angle, is in the midst of a growth spurt. Amazingly, the newer of the two main branches is now taller than the original branch. I am hoping that one or two of the plants buds will soon shoot out their own branches, giving the plant a bit more of a bush like appearance.



The four larger pots of the same size all contain peas. Though the rate of growth was not originally spectacular, things seem to have picked up a little. Some of the seeds I planted in a second round of planting are already showing signs of growth, which seems much faster than the seeds I planted originally. I am incredibly pleased that the cauliflower and broccoli are both still alive and growing. Though they may never become large enough to provide us with a full meal's worth of food, I am just pleased that they are still alive.

The largest terra cotta pot has some watermelon plants that I purchased with the tomatoes. As the watermelon seeds I planted a few days ago hadn't sprouted I decided to wimp out and just buy some plants that were already alive and doing well. I am kind of curious how these plants will develop as there isn't all that much room in the pot, and, if successful, I imagine the plants will have an inclination to spread and seed stalks in all directions.



This planter has a combination of yellow and scarlet runner beans. Based on past experiences with growing beans in pots I am inclined to believe that such a large number of plants will be viable, though I realized it likely looks as though it is pretty crowded. I am hoping that eventually that I will eventually be able to provide something for the scarlet runner beans to climb and that this structure will provide support for the yellow beans in the planter. Of course if they grow at the same rate as the other scarlet runner beans on the balcony this won't be much of an issue, as there won't be much growth to deal with.