This weekend's Maker Faire at the Henry Ford was phenomenal. I'll have a few pictures and highlights for you tomorrow, but today a little balcony garden update…
First off the annuals… we put in a lot more flowers this year than last. We ended up not planting corn this year and doing a lot more herbs in individual pots rather in the long window box style planters hanging on the balcony rail. This left plenty of extra room that has been filled with flowers. I also planted the box that grew spinach in the early season with nasturtium seeds and in no time they were full and blooming. I'm so glad we went this root as it's brought so many more butterflies and bees — happy friends to have in the garden and beautiful to watch.
A happy new addition this year is tomatoes. We have two huge plants that are loaded down with ripening tomatoes. The first ones started to rot on the bottoms and thanks to the interwebs, I quickly diagnosed that they had the common blossom-end rot. This is usually caused by inconsistent watering causing the fruit to be unable to draw enough calcium in. I smashed up a few of my own calcium vitamin tablets by placing them in a ziploc bag and crushing them with a rolling pin. I then sprinkled this over the soil and gave the plants a thorough watering. I changed up my routine to give the tomatoes less frequent but longer waterings and these steps seemed to have worked. The rot has stopped and the newer fruits show no signs of it.
We've had a steady stream of tasty petite carrots since mid-July with still more to harvest. And to date we've made three huge batches of pesto. It's best to use smaller basil leaves as they tend to get bitter the larger they grow and it's been difficult to keep up with — a welcome challenge!
First off the annuals… we put in a lot more flowers this year than last. We ended up not planting corn this year and doing a lot more herbs in individual pots rather in the long window box style planters hanging on the balcony rail. This left plenty of extra room that has been filled with flowers. I also planted the box that grew spinach in the early season with nasturtium seeds and in no time they were full and blooming. I'm so glad we went this root as it's brought so many more butterflies and bees — happy friends to have in the garden and beautiful to watch. A happy new addition this year is tomatoes. We have two huge plants that are loaded down with ripening tomatoes. The first ones started to rot on the bottoms and thanks to the interwebs, I quickly diagnosed that they had the common blossom-end rot. This is usually caused by inconsistent watering causing the fruit to be unable to draw enough calcium in. I smashed up a few of my own calcium vitamin tablets by placing them in a ziploc bag and crushing them with a rolling pin. I then sprinkled this over the soil and gave the plants a thorough watering. I changed up my routine to give the tomatoes less frequent but longer waterings and these steps seemed to have worked. The rot has stopped and the newer fruits show no signs of it.
We've had a steady stream of tasty petite carrots since mid-July with still more to harvest. And to date we've made three huge batches of pesto. It's best to use smaller basil leaves as they tend to get bitter the larger they grow and it's been difficult to keep up with — a welcome challenge!
The lettuce held out for quite some time despite the heat. But I've now let it start going to seed and hope to harvest them for next year's crop. The heat was just too much for the cilantro and dill, too, and they have now gone to seed. The jalapenos have been very slow-going and this is our first and only pepper so far.It shouldn't be long before I have beautiful sunflower photos to show you. I have to say that at this point in the summer, I don't want to do much more in the garden than harvest tasty veggies and cut flowers for vases, but I have been thinking about a couple of cold crops we could start to sew soon. Stay tuned!
Those are the cutest carrots I have ever seen! :o)
ReplyDeleteBeautiful!!
ReplyDeleteAre you putting the nasturtium flowers in your salads?
ReplyDeleteBut of course, BE! The leaves are edible, too — they're kinda peppery!
ReplyDeleteI sprinkle some fresh milk in my tomatoes that has blossom end rot and it is effective. Your pepper are so greenly and healthy. Your garden looks great! I can’t wait to see your harvest on your next post.
ReplyDeleteBlossom end rot is my problem too with my tomatoes. I can’t believe that I am not the only one who is experiencing it. I also pour fresh milk in my plant with this kind of problem and it is effective too. I can say that your tomatoes are big and yummy in the picture even though it has blossom end rot.
ReplyDeleteThanks, Melanie and Rose for the milk tip! I will definitely try that in the future.
ReplyDeleteMilk for gardening? I never thought milk is also a garden tool! But seriously, this is the first time that I heard of it. Sorry for being really innocent but I never used milk for my tomatoes. But will try it soon when my tomatoes get these rotting disease. Thanks Rose and Melanie!
ReplyDeleteRight, Crystal?! Who knew? Not I, that's for sure. thank goodness for the old interwebs. Thanks for stopping by!
ReplyDelete