Hello everyone, happy sunny weekend! :)
This is gonna be a really loooong blogpost with many many photos, because it shows the whole process of turning our balcony into an oasis this spring. :)
Those of you who have been reading my blog for a while now might already know that we moved into out current home about 2 1/2 years ago and that this is the third season I'm working on making our balcony perfect. :) If you wanna see more about the past two balcony seasons, simply have a look at all past balcony oasis blogposts. So here we go:
Our balcony after winter:
Each year when winter comes, I leave the dead flowers outside. I think it's prettier to have a balcony full of rotten plants than to have an empty balcony. Moreover, it looks to pretty when old sunflowers are covered with snow. :) Strawberries, peppermint plants and chives usually survive winter and come back next spring.
So at the beginning of March when spring came, I could hardly wait to get rid of all the dirt and the dead plants and to make everything look fresh and pretty again.
Each time I work on the balcony, Mogli somehow has the impression that it's really helpful sitting or standing in my way. :D But nevertheless, I managed to clean everything in only one afternoon.
Of course I always 'recycle' old soil from the previous year, this especially works well for flowers. For planting and sewing fresh new veggies and herbs, I rather use new organic soil because this is perfect as breeding ground to make plants grow.
For making the balcony look extra special, I painted some average flower pots in pretty colors and added some polka dots, this makes everything extra pretty.
Moreover, if you haven't noticed yet, sweet Mo of RiceDK sent me the most amazing pink doggie planter for my balcony!! Isn't it gorgeous?? I was full of excitement when I received this surprise gift! It perfectly fits my style and makes me smile each time I look out of the balcony door. :)
Filling the balcony with pops of color
In the middle of March the next step after cleaning everything was filling the balcony with color! Flo and I went to the garden center and I picked some colorful spring flowers.
Moreover, I got myself some cute tiny red shovels, this makes balcony gardening extra fun.
How much I love the pink planter I colored myself!
This was lots of fun and after buying those first plants, the balcony has already been looking so pretty!
Sowing and growing
As each year, my mother sends us organic seeds and plants for our balcony. At the beginning of April, for making enough space for all the delicious future vegetables and herbs, I needed to fill many empty old pots with fresh soil.
To add some extra color and to mark which seed is in which pot, I again made little masking tape flags.
My mother sent us seeds for flowers, Easter gras, salad, radishes and and mangetout peas and we even had some seeds of last year's flowers left. :)
We have a total of seven strawberry plants, half of them came back from last year, the others were ordered by my mama this spring.
Doesn't this look super pretty? I'm so proud how much I make out of this tiny balcony space each year.
Always in the way and curious as can be. :)
The empty pots with the tiny flags are reserved for organic tomato and basil plants which are about to arrive in late April.
How much I love this cute doggie planter and all the other colorful pots! Those which aren't painted by hand were bought at Butlers, xenos and Tiger. :)
Making progress: seeds becoming plants
In late April, many of the seeds had already become tiny plants and grewed a lot. It was so much fun watching them pop out of the soil during the weeks. :)
Those gorgeous chairs are vintage, my mama once got them for me as a birthday present on DaWanda. :) The table is simply from our local hardware store.
Soon to be colorful marigold.
On the left, you can see a pot with organic lemon balm I bought at Mutter Fourage and on the right there's some thyme in the background which I had also bought there. In the foreground, you can see the raddishes that I had sown. Stupid me, when sowing them I forgot that my mother had told me that those seeds need a distance of about 5cm in order to grow properly, so I will now have to repot them or simply remove some of the tiny plants. :)
Two years ago, my best friend Anja got me tiny peppermint plants from her mother's garden and they come back each year. :) Can't wait to harvest some leaves for cocktails and smoothies!
My mother loves nasturtium a lot, so she got me some seeds. They grow without any effort and the edible blossoms look so pretty in a fresh salad.
This might be one of my fave photos of this whole series, because it's so full of rich green and bright colors and shows how fast everything has grown! :) Proud girl!
These are the mangetout peas that I had sown, can't wait to try them!
The strawberries are growing and blooming so fast and even the Easter gras had gotten this size in only about two weeks.
Marigold and lavender from the organic garden center.
This planter is perfect as a highlight in the middle of the balcony and draws lots of attention to the flowers inside.
Luloveshandmade and the Urban Jungle Bloggers
With this colorful blogposts and the progress my balcony has made in the fast few week this year's spring, it's the first time I'm taking part in the monthly Urban Jungle Bloggers series. :) This is a blogger series of a community created by Igor of Happy Interior Blog and Judith of JOELIX and its aim is to make the blogosphere green, to share the colorful and green happiness and to connect each other. :) Awesome! If you want to participate (either for this month's green balcony or window sill theme or next time), simply check out their Facebook page for more details and have a look at all the other bloggers' lovely green blogposts! :) The hashtag on all social media channels is #urbanjunglebloggers.
So for now, I'm done with my balcony, but in a few days, hopefully the tomato plants and basil plants will arrive and then I can watch those grow.
There's nothing better after a busy day than to relax, sit on the balcony, look at all those green plants and beautifully colored flowers, watch them grow and enjoy the fresh air outside! :)
Can't wait for summer when all the wild flowers and sunflowers on my balcony have reached their full size and all the cute honey bees come to visit me! :)
Happy balcony gardening!
Lu