Freezing temps and new realizations

The nighttime temperatures dipped to below freezing this past weekend, so we had to do something with our plants to make sure they didn't freeze. We were going to bring them inside, but decided to put them in a couple of insulated sheds that we have on either side of the balcony instead. Both have lights, so we left them on for warmth and light. Unfortunately, they were "regular" light bulbs, so they didn't provide much in the way of nutrition for the plants, but we figured they would be okay for a short time. I also thought (hoped) this would prevent them from getting too used to being inside. You know, a tough love sort of thing ;-) It seems they have all weathered the storm, but as with all things green, only time will tell. Here are the latest pics.

Here are the geranium and bachelor's buttons in their temporary home in the north shed (I know, it's a mess).











From front are flowing petunias that I got to put in the wall planters we got (see next pic), Asian poppies, and purple coneflower.











These planters were acquired last weekend at a Mexican talavera shop just north of Taos. They gave me a "deal," but I probably still paid too much. Anyway, they are pretty and rustic, just the look I'm going for on my balcony. (side note: the paneling is a bit hideous, I know, but the petunias will block it out soon enough :)

On the other hand, this was a SCORE from Jericho Nursery on 2nd and Paseo. It was on their "Let's Make a Deal Table" and I got it for $5. I didn't want something all shiny and perfect and this fit the bill very well :)




All the other assorted flowers and herbs from the north side of the balcony amongst Josh's Big Blue Box, assorted Christmas decorations, and boxes of beer bottles.





The herbs from the south end of the balcony in the south shed. These are more resilient and I am pretty sure they will make it.






After going through all this work, I realized with the right light setup, we could totally set up a mini grow house (no, not for pot) in one of the sheds. We could get a long table and some lights as described in You Grow Girl (an awesome book for the modern, urban female gardener!) and voila! We could have plants all year :) Let's see if Josh goes for it...

Garden Update - Week Four

Soooo... stuff appears to be going well in the garden for the most part. We had some strong winds over the past weekend and it hit the sunflowers and mint pretty hard. The mint will probably recover, but unfortunately one of the sunflowers didn't survive. The strawberries aren't doing so well... this makes me sad. :(

We also potted some more purple coneflower and strawflower. Other recent additions include some purple and white daisies, some wall-mounted planters, and a new table. Matching chairs coming soon!

My ex-boss is coming over for dinner in a couple weeks, so hopefully there will be some more improvement and growth before then :) I'm also going to have to get cleaning. The patio just needs a good sweeping, but the house is another story. Eek!!! Some heavy spring cleaning is definitely in order.

Anwyay, here are some pics. Enjoy!

These are the daisies I bought. I dead-headed two of them a couple days ago and now they are really blooming!











Planted the purple coneflower in this Guinness ice bucket. Cute, huh?








Here are the runner beans. They are growing like... weeds, LOL. Soon, they'll blossom and produce edible beans. I wonder if they'll taste like chicken.





And we're down to two. We used to have three mammoth sunflowers planted in this pot, but one fell victim to the wind. Time will tell, right? (On a side note here, we decided to plant some queen velvet sunflowers, as well. These are a reddish maroon color... I think they will add a good contrast to this pot.)

This is an overall view of the north end of my patio, which gets the most sun. All the plants here are doing really well and getting noticably bigger each day (with the exception of the strawberries, which aren't really showing much growth).








The plants on the south side of the balcony, which gets a lot less sun, aren't really doing much of anything. The asclepia tuberosa and black-eyed susans I planted here haven't grown at all since I planted them two weeks ago.



The herbs we planted haven't really grown much, either, but the ones we transplanted are growing a lot. You can see the mint is a bit mangled, but it's nearly doubled in size, despite being manhandled by the wind.

Plans for the next six hours, next six days, next six weeks

I know work is necessary, but why does it have to be so loooong and booooring sometimes? *sigh*

So far tonight I have recategorized all the credits to/debits from my checking account since January 1, researched planting in metal containers, scoured Craigslist for a suitable patio table, eaten half an apple fritter (which I am totally regretting right now), texted with Josh, read like 40 e-mails and written eight, and who knows what else...in addition to keeping the lights on. And I still have 6.5 hours to go!

In other news, I am going to be traveling a fair bit in the next several months. First, I am really looking forward to getting out of town and going to Taos this weekend. There's a beer festival going on at the ski area so, beer lovers that we are, Josh and I are going. My mom is coming along, too. We're going to leave Saturday morning, get some touristy Taos Plaza stuff in during the afternoon, check out the festival that evening, and then come back Sunday. We're gonna stay at a cute B&B called Adobe & Stars. Jacuzzi here I come! LOL

Next month I'm hosting a girls night out in Santa Fe... not quite sure the date yet, but I'm hoping to do Site Santa Fe and then Ten Thousand Waves Spa. That's my favorite place ever.

Theeeen, in June, Josh & I are going to San Francisco to see his parents and the sights. I am looking forward to Alcatraz!!

I finally got off my butt...

...and got a patio (balcony) garden going. Ever since I moved into this apartment, I have wanted to do something with the fairly large space on my balcony, so about three weeks ago, when I was at K-Mart and saw a "grow your own garden" kit I decided to just do it. I bought that along with some wildflower seeds (runner beans, black-eyed susans, butterfly weed, purple coneflower, mammoth sunflowers) and some herbs (basil, cilantro, parsley, dill, and lavender). Ever the supportive boyfriend, Josh was happy to oblige my latest project :)

Hopefully, this project will turn out well and I can entertain on our little patio oasis a bunch this summer.

WEEK ONE
I planted the seeds in the seed starter kit and WOW! It worked! Within a few days the sunflowers (the super tall sprout) and runner beans were already ready to be transplanted and the others had begun to sprout.





Okay, okay, so those of you who garden probably know that the reason the sunflowers were growing so fast is because... well, they will grow up to be HUGE. I made a beginner's mistake and didn't research ahead of time what I was going to plant. As I found out - a bit too late - is that mammoth sunflowers apparently grow up to 15 feet tall! OMG! So, in an effort to keep them to around 5 - 6 feet, we planted three of them in a 12-inch pot. So far so good!

WEEK TWO
After adding some store-bought herbs, we now have a pretty good herb garden going on our patio. From left to right, we have rosemary, pineapple sage (smells divine!), mammoth dill, mint, chives, and lavender. We also have the parsley, basil, and cilantro growing in the green rectangular planter in the next picture.

The flowers are also doing well. We planted bachelor's buttons, strawflower and hydrangea in the pretty blue, yellow and green pots on the top shelf. On the second shelf, we have some more bachelor's buttons and strawberries. The strawberries are doing really well and I can't wait to taste them! We plan to add some more flowers as they are ready to plant. Oh yeah, and on the left on the floor are the runner beans. They are actually vines, and we are hoping they climb both the bamboo trellis we put in there and the shelf. *fingers crossed*


Pictured here are butterfly weed and some black-eyed susans planted around them. The butterfly weed grows pretty tall with vibrant orange and yellow flowers and the black-eyed susans are yellow daisy-like flowers. I was hoping to get some variety in this pot, but I'm kind of afraid all the plants will be really tall. Again... we will see!

Here's Josh takin' in the gorgeous ABQ weather on our balcony :) I can't wait til we can have guests over to enjoy it with us.