More balcony and garden

Here is the view from our balcony, taken today. We're on the third floor so it's pretty nice. It's usually very quiet out save for the occasional loud car or nearby construction, so I sit out here often to enjoy my breakfast or read a book. Lately we've had a problem with wasps, but I got rid of them. Normally I leave bugs alone, but paper wasps are aggressive and like to get into the house, and none of us want to be stung. I wish I'd taken pictures of the nest after killing the queen wasp, it had larvae and eggs in it, which is pretty cool if you like bugs (I do.)


This is the tree just outside. I love this tree, it provides me with plenty of birds and a place to hang my feeders. I put them out into the branches using a long pole, and bring them back in again when they need refilling. Currently the wooden feeder there is empty due to Red Winged Blackbirds raiding it nonstop. I've just taken to filling a tray and setting it on the edge of the balcony for now, so the seed isn't knocked onto the ground and wasted by these giant birds trying to land on it. I get mourning doves, cardinals, chickadees, american goldfinches, robins, and the occasional blue-jay here on the porch. In the winter there will be dark-eyed juncos, but you never see them in the summer here.

These are new berries starting to form. I'll get a few stragglers like this until fall, when the second bigger crop should come in. It won't be enough for preserves or anything, unfortunately. I think when we get a yard I'm going to plant a big patch of June-bearing varieties so I can have a bumper crop to make preserves out of. But that's a story for another day.






Look at all the flowers on these tomato plants! I can't wait to see this thing loaded down with fruit later on this summer. I've been trying to ensure pollination by shaking the branches, apparently that works well with tomatoes. I do get the occasional fat little bumblebee up here but not much else in the way of pollinators, so it's up to me. You can see my finch sock there too. There are almost always at least two birds hanging off that thing.




Here are more tomatoes. That red one still has a couple of days to ripen before I'll bring it inside for Trev to put on his sandwiches. This plant also has plenty of flowers and is growing well. A few sunburned leaves, but otherwise it's a healthy plant.








Pole beans! These are Kentucky Wonders. They absolutely flourished during the hot spell we just had, and are like twice the size they were a week and a half ago. I was planning to just let them grow up the little trellis I have staked there, but I'm considering letting them grow all over the railing on the balcony as well if they want to. The only problem there is if a storm comes I won't be able to move them back out of harm's way, so we'll see about that. I'll update when I see flowers on these.



This is an Anaheim pepper plant. It's doing pretty well and has a couple of tiny flower buds that still seem to be forming. Hopefully they'll bloom soon. I'm really hoping to get a good harvest from my peppers so I can dry them and make my own chili powder.








This is my chili pepper. This poor little thing was doing very well until some aphids decided to move in. Well, I wasn't about to have that, so I bought a squirt bottle and filled it with dishsoap and water. It didn't really deter the aphids completely and caused the poor plant to wilt and become stunted. Trev's grandmother kindly gave me some insecticide powder and I promptly came home and rained aphid death upon the plant, but it never really recovered. I'd have replaced it by now but Lowe's doesn't have any that look much better, unfortunately, and it's way too late to start one from seed.

These are my little runners from the strawberry pot. The wilty one on the right there is the newest one to be planted, once it gets established more it won't wilt during the heat of the day. The others are doing well, but I'm not putting them into full sunlight just yet. Once their root systems are better established into the soil, I'll start hardening them off to sunlight. Hopefully these babies will produce well next June.





This is spinach. Well, it was spinach. We ate it all. It was delicious. Unfortunately, it's now too hot for spinach, so we'll have to rely on store-bought until things cool down in the fall. Then I'll plant a whole bunch more and we can enjoy fresh spinach in every sandwich and salad again.








This is my monstrous basil plant. The aphids have also attacked this but they're unable to hurt it, apparently. It's just growing too fast. The bumblybees love the flowers, and we love the leaves. I'd be giving this away if I knew anyone who wanted any, since it's obviously growing way faster than we're using it. Once it gets too cold for basil I should see about making pesto.






I think that's it for today. I need to shower and eat something so I can be to work at 4 PM. I currently work as a waitress at a little restaurant within walking distance. As a matter of fact, the place is actually so close that if I go out onto the balcony in the morning the smell of bacon often wafts over from there. I don't make particularly good money ($40 or so on a good night, $15 on a bad one, in between any other time) but it's not a stressful job at least. It's something for now, and when it's time to move on something else will pop up. I'm trying to learn to drive by then, and Trevor might be moving from his deli job at store level to a graphic design/marketing sort of position at corporate. We're really crossing our fingers for that one, we need to start building up the spare cash for a down payment for a house. Anyway, I'm out. :)