Friday, May 21, 2010

A Fire Garden



About two months ago, I planted a little garden on my balcony in my various window boxes and hanging baskets. When Ryan was little, he used to help his mom in her garden. He told me how he begged her to let him have his own little garden, a "fire garden", which would have only plants in fire-colored hues. She never let him. =( So when it came time for me to make my balcony pretty again, I decided to do a fire garden that he can enjoy.

Please ignore my sad lights. They need to be reinforced, that is if they still work. I have had lots of critters (squirrels) hanging out on my balcony, and being rodents, I know they are perpetually chewing animals. I wouldn't be surprised if my lights have fell victim to their gnawing habits.

The view directly out from my sliding door

Remember how the wrens were tearing apart my planter? Yeah, I didn't feel like paying 9 bucks for another coconut shell planter shell, so I just provided more support by cutting up one of the plastic pots some of the plants came in. =) Directly left of this view is a bird seed feeder, so between the birds and squirrels, by balcony gets a lot of visitors. The cats of course, love to watch them from the window. Baby, very curious by nature, is always waiting at the door to follow me outside whenever I go out to do laundry or water the plants.


He always has to investigate

A view slightly to the right of that first photo. . .


some of the window-boxes are the same

There is the wren house, a hummingbird feeder (though I haven't seen any yet) and yep, those are topsy-turvies. I'll let you know how those work. I have bell-pepper, tomatoes and tomatillos in them. My balcony doesn't get a whole lot of sun, so I am concerned with how well they will really do. I might need to move them to the front walkway where it's not so shaded by all the trees. I'd like to try to avoid that, because even though I am a friendly neighbor, I don't want my produce getting taken by others. =(

the veggies

I've been fertilizing the plants so they've really begun to take off. No baby produce yet though. That small soda bottle is for slow-watering so that the bag stays really moist.



Some flowers and rosemary for cooking


My plant gnawer is back. I don't know if its a squirrel or what, but I just noticed it about a week ago. That little yellow plant is non-existent now. Something chewed all the leaves off just leaving the yellow head. And I found it yesterday, chewed clean off, laying there in the dirt all sad and brown. =( I've begun to notice it on one of the tomatoes too. I really want to know what is doing this!
Once, I did see a female cardinal in the trees just hanging out in the branches. Then she would jump up and pull a leaf off. I watched her for several minutes just plucking the leaves off the tree and watching them fall. It seemed like she was doing this for fun, because she was not collecting them. I was fascinated when I first saw this, and thought it was pretty funny. . . until it started happening to my plants! Now I wonder if it's her. Some of the branches and things that I have noticed are being broken seem a bit thick for a little cardinal beak though. I'll be keeping an eye out! Anyhow, I think I will replace that yellow plant with some lavender. I know, not a fire-garden flower. But as I do have some herbs here, it will fit in with that scheme. =)


Flowers, red and orange with one that looks like firecrackers.

window box with begonias, thyme and alyssum

hanging baskets of flowers

The one furthest left has some begonias with other greenery.

a closeup

Some butterfly bush (left) and I don't know what that red one is called. But I love how it looks like flames!!

I love my pretty outdoor space. Hope you enjoyed it too. TGIF!

2 comments:

Chanelle said...

you are too cute! ;)

we need a phone date soon. miss ya!

Vanessa Monet said...

Thanks Bella!! I know, I've tried calling you a couple times but either you're too busy, or I remember that its not good to call you on your phone so I hang up. Let me know when you're home and I'll call the house! <3 u.