An End of Summer Picking

I have this blogging and journaling problem: if a lot has happened since my last post I have a hard time writing because I feel that I have to catch readers up on everything in neatly organized, chronological order. Then I just stop writing and cramp up. Oh well. Order be damned. Here's a short photo story from today.

We went raspberry and peach picking at our favorite spot for such adventures: Hartland Orchards.

Brian goes back to work next week so we're savoring the last few days of our fun summer.

Awesome day. Good kids. Delicious fruits. Lovely weather.

Distinguishing between ripe and not-quite ripe

Cal: "I loved this place when I was a four year-old girl."

Clark: "Now I'm going to pick with my friend Daddy."

Clark's friend Daddy

On to the peach orchard

Is it ripe?

Peach tree scouting

Picking with Dad and the giant picker

A good peach harvest

Quick, while Dad's not looking...

Squishing peaches

The only way to cut up peaches

Our raspberry jam!

Soon-to-be peach jam

Thursday Thesicle

Grandma knows how to pick strawberries the best.

Balcony Harvest

It’s time for a balcony update! It’s been a great spring and early summer here on the balc. After I wrote this about the story of our balcony, I’ve been watering my little seedlings and accumulating more plants and flowers. The cilantro, lettuce, and pea seedlings grew up and surpassed all my expectations. Only one spinach plant and one basil plant survived. The peas took off so well that they don’t have anywhere else to climb and are folding over on themselves and dying. Right now there are six pea pods growing on there. I just picked the seventh one today. We’ve had the cilantro in black beans, lettuce and spinach in sandwiches and salad, and soon some basil leaves will be ready to be plucked.

I was trying to find some plants that wouldn’t have to be moved to the front of the balcony all the time, but would survive back more toward the door. After the fern plant died, I gave up and moved everything to the front. My primroses were new this year, and they have only flowered once. They seem to be healthy again, so hopefully they will bloom again soon. My impatiens and vincas always flourish, and I have two of those leafy spider plants that are supposed to survive against all odds. We’ll see. 

I had two bleeding heart plants that started off great—I got them because they like shade, and I think they’re beautiful. Oddly one just died after looking fine. The other bloomed once and then looked sickly for awhile. It now looks much better but hasn’t bloomed again.

I only have fertilized once, and it was with a homemade fertilizer—1 tsp Epsom salt in 1 gallon of water. I don’t know if it had anything to do with the bountiful veggie harvest, but maybe.

Here is an update in pictures of the spring and early summer on our balcony. First of, all-- the big story has been the peas.

We sprouted these in plastic bags and planted them.

They just kept growing so I added tomato stakes.

climbing...

These creepers were not jokin' around.

I added strings so they could keep themselves from falling over.

Pods!

I never thought peas would do well on my balcony!

Clark holds the first harvested pod.

Cilantro and basil sprouting

Lettuce and spinach pops up in the window box.

Water can, primrose, impatience, spade, beer

Cilantro and basil transplanted to window box.

Lettuce taking off...

Vincas do well in my shadier window boxes.

...as do impatiens

Yum...we used this on many sandwiches.

One corner

Bleeding heart

Cilantro did well...but only one basil survived

If you build it in miniature on the balcony, they will come.

Yummers. Cilantro in black bean tostados... after that they went to seed.

An inspirational place for watercoloring

Big lettuce harvest

First salad! 

The Story of Our Balcony

I love our balcony. Our lives would be much different without it. It's abnormally large for a typical condo or apartment balcony and basically an extension of our our living space. I was looking at some old pictures yesterday and noticed quite a few balcony pictures over the years. Don't worry, I won't share them all. But, here is a photo story of our balcony over the past four years we've lived here and the beginning of the fifth.

First year

Second year-- can you tell I was on bed rest and could spend all day planting one flower?

Second year--  a few months later with broken dryer and spitting-up infants

Second year-- first snow!

Third year-- spring

Third year-- fall

Fourth year-- ball practice

Cal kisses Ava

Summer escape

Nighttime rodeo grounds

Favorite picnic spot

Bubble-blowing lesson

Fall wrestling match

Fifth year-- toy parachute man stuck in tree

The flu aftermath

February popsicles

After dinner drinks

Brief magnolia tree blossoms

We've had an unseasonably early spring this year and so I've been in a gardening mood now for a month or more.  Our magnolia tree lasted only about two days in full bloom and then the angry sun (I think it reached 90 degrees) burned the beautiful pink blossoms away. Nevertheless, I've been dreaming of having a lush, pretty balcony this year. Not that it's usually frightfully ugly, but last year the boys were really into eating potting soil so I couldn't do much beyond the flower boxes. I'm hopeful that we'll get a little more sun this year since two surrounding pine trees died and had to be cut down last fall. So I've planted some veggies and herbs in hopes of having a little more sun and being able to eat some homegrown produce-- something I really miss from growing up. You just can't beat running to the garden for a snack of fresh carrots and sugar snap peas, hosing them off, and crunching on them whenever you want. Oh, and getting lost in the raspberry patch. 

My parents are still big gardeners, especially with much more land at their new house and for my birthday they are helping fund a more bountiful and beautiful balcony. I did some research about shade plants and ordered some. I got two bleeding heart bushes, a fern-ish plant, and some English primroses that should thrive in a partial/full shade setting. With them I'm mixing in some lettuce and spinach, basil and cilantro, and probably some begonias. I have a mini iris plant that was a gift. I also have some peas that I originally thought we'd just watch sprout in a bag with a wet paper towel and throw away, but I couldn't bring myself to toss them out. Now they're huge! They need sun though, so I'm not sure if they'll be able to flower and produce actual fruit. A few years ago I had lovely, big tomato plants that never had any tomatoes. I'll add some more plants as I haunt Home Depot (though I do wish the gardening section was closer to the ceiling fan section.) and keep taking pictures of how much my plants grow because I'm a little garden-dorky. I also want to make a compost bucket for the balcony. I found a model for making a balcony compost bin, but I'm just not sure I'm willing to give up the space and risk the boys getting into it. 

Here are some garden balcony pictures from this spring since you haven't seen enough balcony pictures already: