After a short walk yesterday, I spent part of the afternoon getting started on the "autumn cleaning" of my balcony by cutting down my tomato plants, and taking in the geraniums, as there is a rather high risk of frosty nights now. Only having a few ourdoors plants to look after, I always find myself wondering how people (my age and older) manage who have a whole garden full...
One problem when one lives in a 2nd floor flat with a balcony is that one has very limited workspace for "gardening", though. For one thing, one has to try to keep things tidy even while one is at it, so that no dirt falls down to the neighbours below. And collect all leftovers of dead leaves and potting soil etc neatly in small plastic bags to fit in the dustbin. And avoid dropping dirt all over the living room floor while carrying things through to the kitchen to be washed, etc.
I also had to get rid of some tired plants on my indoors window sills, and rearrange the rest a bit, in order to make room for the geraniums - still in bloom.
Two of the geranium pots now sit on the window sill in my study, next to some coleus cuttings. (The plant in the background spent the summer indoors - the difference in colour is from the difference in how much light they've been getting. They all originate from the same plant to start with!)
One now resides in the kitchen window together with my African violets.
The remaining two sit on the window sill in the living room, next to the balcony door.
I still have more autumn jobs to do on the balcony before winter sets in, but getting the geraniums in was the most urgent.
13 comments:
A cheerful display of colour to brighten the darker days.
I like the copper kettle. I am a collector of lots of eclectic stuff. The Geraniums are easy to make cuttings of.
You really do have a green thumb!!! They are just gorgeous, and so healthy looking! The cuttings from the Coleus, will you be putting them all together in one big pot? I have three and will likely be doing some cuttings myself.
Your flat never looks anything but clean, neat and tidy, Monica. But I know what you mean about gardening; some of the very few potted plants I have could really do with a repotting, but so far I have not tackled that task for exactly those reasons - don't want the dirt and plant parts everywhere in my rooms. Another issue is getting hold of a bag of soil; it is too heavy for me carry home on foot but I hate asking someone to get one for me.
PS: The autumn colours in your walk pictures are beautiful!
Your first photo is lovely - the trees are really turning now.
When I look at my garden, I envy your balcony - it's so clean and tidy! I have a gardener who comes to keep the hedges, trees and large shrubs in order and clear away the debris blown by the wind, but inbetween times it's down to me! On Friday afternoon I was out with the garden vacuum sucking up all the dead leaves, pine needles and flower heads, only to wake yesterday morning to find we'd had a very strong wind overnight and the garden looked worse than before I'd worked on it the day before!
Why not rake the dead leaves etc. in piles? It looks neat-ish AND all kinds of small animals benefit from them.
Northsider, the copper kettle belonged to my grandmother. For some reason I've never had great success with cuttings from geraniums myself.
Thanks Ginny. Taking photos while they've all just been recently pruned... :) Not decided yet about the fresh Coleus cuttings.
Meike, I'm probably more likely to take photos just after tidying up rather than before! ;-) (But yes, I do also usually try not to let things get too chaotic...) Luckily soil for repotting is among the kind of things I can order with my home delieveries from the supermarket (or else I would have given up on it long ago). Repotting is still a messy job, though and sometimes it feels easier to just buy new plants instead.
Carol, it sounds like a job that can easily get too much, but good that you have the help of a gardener with some of it.
Meike, raking dead leaves into piles hardly helps for very long in stormy weather, though...
Meike, Monica is right, piles of leaves would just blow around the garden creating more mess. I'm on the side of a valley and open to all the elements, especially the strong winds that seem to blow regularly. Most of the leaves I get are actually from my next door neighbour's garden.
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