So, in honor of AT's Greenest Thumb Contest, we thought we'd take the plunge and embarrass ourselves.
This is our garden.
Yes, one lonely bouganvillea plant.
But here's the thing: We've had this bouganvillea for two years. Because we only watered it, and never even managed to move it out of its plastic nursery pot until a couple of months ago, it never did much -- not surprising. Now that it's in a large pot (borrowed from our landlord; we know it looks too big but we were feeling optimistic about the plant's growth), enjoying the sun, it's starting to bloom and grow. And every single time we walk past it, we notice it, and appreciate it.
Love the pot!
Go little bouganvillea, go!
Well, y'all inspired me to do something about the pathetic state of the balcony. I'm not entering because I only just got things potted, so it's not an established garden yet (translation: I might still manage to kill off half of it).
We had the large stone thing and two pots of plants before... then ebrown took me shopping and spoke in low soothing tones until I was sufficiently non-skittish to buy plants.
http://www.flickr.com/photos/35684487@N00/165107031/
http://www.flickr.com/photos/35684487@N00/165107033/
http://www.flickr.com/photos/35684487@N00/165107030/
Yup, we're going to grow lemons on the balcony! The real find, though -- and it was ebrown who spotted it -- was the lurid purple succulent, to add some edge to all the pink.
wende, your balcony looks beautiful, I love the combination of colors and textures. If I can grow limes and oranges here in Portland, you can do lemons in SF! Do you want some tips? I bought my plants from thse folks and they had good advice:
http://www.fourwindsgrowers.com/growing/containers.html
My kaffir and calamondins laughed at me and dropped all their leaves when I tried to take care of them using only organic stuff like I do with the rest of my garden (container and in-ground). Now I use a combination of Osmocote for azaleas and rhodies (it's acidic, which citrus likes) and the organic stuff from EB Stone. A year later they are blooming and fruiting like crazy.
I should post pictures of my garden on flicker, I'm not entering because people are mean, and I don't want to get riled up and bite back.
regards,
trillium
Tips are very welcome! I promptly ran outside to make sure I hadn't planted the lemon too low in the pot (which I had).
Apparently what happens with citrus is that oranges need wider temperature extremes than we get here -- it's not consistently hot enough for the fruit to set. Lemons and limes are supposed to be okay.
My goal is to be responsible about fertilizing at reasonable intervals. Somehow, my hatred of weeding my parents' suburban flowerbeds as a tot translates to being a Slow Learner about plants.