2023 Garden Update
We’re now about two months into the growing season for my grow zone, and the garden is in bloom! You may, or may not remember back in April I shared a blog all about my 2023 Gardening Plan, and included a full layout of what was going where, what I was growing, companion plants and everything in between. In today’s blog, I’m sharing everything that has gone well, and some things that just haven’t. If you haven’t read the gardening plan blog, you may not know that this is my first year growing a vast majority of my plants from seed, including herbs, veggies and flowers! Let’s jump into this update, shall we?
What’s Gone Well
Overall, I’d say that my garden is doing really well, all things considered! Thankfully, while we were away in late May/early June, I had family who was able to come by every couple of days to water my plants, and when we came back, all of the little baby plants had really grown, so I was thrilled, to say the least.
Before I get too ahead of myself, let’s jump back to the spring/cool-weather plants that are no longer in season – the ranunculus & anemones. Both of them did quite well, but I think the anemones were a bit more successful. I ended up with about 8 blooms from my anemones over the course of the season, and in fact, some are still growing despite the hot weather! The ranunculus did well, but not as well as I had hoped; I ended up with about 5 or 6 white blooms, and only one pink. Next year, I plan to grow most of my corms in my mom’s backyard since hers were extremely successful and grow only 2 or 3 on my balcony. Four corms in a 20” planter seemed to be a bit too much, so I’m hoping reducing it down will help them thrive next year.
Now that we’re really into the heat of the summer, the zinnias and cosmos are really starting to pop up, with the zinnias looking super full and lush. I also ended up grabbing myself a bag of marigold seeds to plant around our balcony as I heard that this plant aids in repelling pests. So far, they seem to be doing their job!
Even though flowers are my number one, I ended up growing more herbs & vegetables than anything given that the conditions of my balcony are more suitable for these kinds of plants. We started radishes (which we’ve already planted more of for succession planting!), carrots, cherry tomatoes, lettuce, spinach, strawberries, thyme, basil, dill, and garlic chives this year, all of which have been growing and looking amazing, with the exception of the spinach, which I think I overwatered, and then it bolted like crazy. That’s okay though – as I always say, gardening is one big experiment! Our most successful plant seems to be the cherry tomato, and boy, is it huge! There are about a dozen cherry tomatoes currently growing on the plant right now, and now I’m impatiently waiting for them to ripen.
What’s Went Wrong
Back at the beginning of May, I got a little overzealous and planted out our basil during a little heat wave we got, which quickly turned into a wicked cold snap, with temperatures dropping below 10°C at night, and unfortunately, I lost all of my basil seedlings and was forced to start over again, so I haven’t had a chance to even try some of my own fresh, homegrown basil, but here’s hoping it’ll be full & lush by the end of the season so it can be harvested, dried & used over the winter.
Though I don’t know if this is something that “went wrong” necessarily, I can truly say, it was not a positive thing for me (I hate birds) – just the other day, I caught a pigeon trying to make a nest in my hydrangea plant. I walked out onto our balcony and spooked it, causing it to fly away. When I went over to check to see what it had gotten into, I found a pile of dried plants, and bits of plastic in the back corner of our large planter that has a limelight hydrangea shrub in it, and knew exactly what it was trying to do in there. I had to go out and buy a second fake owl (yes, I already had one!) that’s motion-activated to make noise & light up, and purchase some scare-eyes meant to deter birds from your plants. Ultimately, our balcony is starting to look like a weird anti-bird-haven, but as long as it keeps the birds out of my plants, I’ll take it!
And there you have it – my first little update on my balcony garden for 2023! I’m super excited to see how the rest of the season goes, particularly with the zinnias, cosmos & dahlias (which are planted at my moms!), and hopefully we’ll get some gorgeous summer bouquets of out of them for our my home!
