Balcony gardening

I was very late getting my balcony boxes going this year. Normally I manage to grow all the herbs I use in my kitchen over the summer from a third of a square meter of balcony boxes and have flowers in there to mix it up a bit. Two boxes are doing well this year. One I allowed to get waterlogged and everything except the thyme is showing signs of stress. The other two are doing very well. I have found a new cascading plant Calibrachoa Noa™ Sunset. I am amazed how many flowers it carries, how long it keeps them and how far it cascades. It’s half an arm’s length already and was only planted two months ago: which makes is ideal for baskets or hanging pots. That makes up for the marigolds, which have been an unmitigated failure this year (I must have planted FI hybrids seeds last year).

I also planted some Greek Basil this year, for the first time. The leaves are much smaller than the traditional varieties, but it copes with heat stress or not being watered (on weekends away) much better, is just as aromatic and attracts pollinators. I found this bee humming away today – god knows how far it came from – I think the closest bee hives are about 1.5 km away. If you multiple bee size into distance travelled that is an incredible expenditure of energy.