Balcony seen from street 02-09-2013

Looks great balcony

do people like to stop and look? looks very colourful...

Great colour

Thank you for saying my balcony looks great! :-))

Over the years lots of people have stopped & commented on my balcony display! :-)) I don't do it for others really, I do it principally because I like to grow as wide a range of flowers in a small space as I can - if others like what I do then so much the better.

I never put in for the gardens competition held by the local council every year, not even when last year our block of flats was encouraged to take part & the caretaker wanted me to enter my balcony!

I'm the only one out of the 25 here who fills up their balcony with plants. The great majority don't grow a single living plant on them! :-(( One exception comes to mind as I write this. A few months ago somebody new moved into one of the 6th floor flats & I've noticed from the street they have living plants on their balcony as well as in the windows of their flat! One window is full of what look like Orchids! It's difficult to judge really from the ground.

In a couple of weeks time this will look totally different. I've already taken out the Petunias on the top of the balcony railings as they were dying from mildew. :-(( Most of the Petunias in the hanging baskets have also been removed. I haven't removed any yet from the 3 white troughs on the balcony floor.

are you planing a winter balcony for the winter months?..

i must admit i might not bother in flats to grow flowers or herbs out on the balcony which would be my lost....

Yes, Jane, I always grow some Pansies or Violas. I put them in the pots on the balcony railings & underplant them with mini-Daffs & Crocuses.

The 3 white troughs on the balcony floor I also plant up with Pansies & underplant with Daffs & perhaps Tulips or Hyacinths. Even the hanging baskets get planted up with Pansies! :-))

The last few years I've lost every single plant I'd put in! Which was a crying shame ;-(( because, apart from losing flowers during the winter I also lost the main flowering period from April till May. Which meant the balcony was bare of flowers during May! I can't put out the summer flowering plants till late May as there is always a danger of a late frost which would kill them or at least damage them.

that is a shame must look very bare like that for you both...
as you are both use to looking out upon colour....

hope this winters stock goes well.

I put in 6 Pansies in each of the 3 white troughs on the balcony floor but they look helplessly lost! I hope to get a few more trays next week. This past week they haven't had any in the shop. :-((

aww! :(

Beautiful.

Thanks, Lynda! :-))

I've bought some Pansies from a stall on the market place down town this week but because of the very strong & very cold winds I've not been able to plant them out yet in the long white troughs on the balcony floor.

Last Saturday I bought a couple of trays & I planted the Pansies in the pots on the balcony railings. I've had to take them off the railings for a few days while the strong cold Northerly winds persist. They would probably die in I left them there without time to get well established.