Balcony Garden: Harvest Monday (the end for now)

I'm feeling a bit burnt out by the balcony garden. I've been toiling away on the balcony for about two years now and it's time me and my green thumb took a bit of a hiatus. I'm feeling a bit lazy at the moment and need to think about my next step for what I want to grow out there. It's not "THE END"...just a pause.

Whilst I've (mostly) enjoyed the gardening process it's not all fun and games. After each crop dies I need to lug all the pots (with their dirt) downstairs to the green waste bin. It's heavy and awkward, and after hurting my arm at work three years ago it's literally a pain! I'm not supposed to lift anything over 2kgs and the pots weigh much more than that!

Watering isn't easy as we've not got a tap on the balcony. I either need to fill up buckets in the  bathroom and slosh them through the house and out to the balcony (again heavy). Dave did buy me a house that connects to a tap under the kitchen sink but I've not quite mastered the logistics of this so it's a case of batting my eyelids when I want to water with the hose.

You may have noticed that we do like to travel. A LOT. I feels like an imposition to ask people to water our garden when we're away so often thus we often come home to scenes like this...making me wonder should I even have a garden at all? We don't have pets as we travel so much...maybe we shouldn't have parsley either?

And then of course there's been the never ending "bug warfare", a battle that I've sometimes won, but mostly lost! Jerks!

All of that aside, we've had some issues lately with our balcony no longer being waterproof and whenever I water it would literally rain through to the neighbours balcony below. Not good for neighbourly relations I can tell you. The balcony is being re-waterproofed and then it's being repainted over Easter. This means that ALL the pots have to go so it's seyonara tomatoes and basil. I am going to try to hold on to my mint, sage and rosemary as I love them too much to ditch.

When I was enjoying the balcony garden I REALLY enjoyed it. I've learned a lot not only about plants, but about bugs and how to (try and) control them. I've learned that despite their size caterpillars really are smarter than me!  I've definitely learned A LOT about food production and I like to think the garden has made me a better, more responsible, consumer. But, best of all growing my own food as made me a better cook - I'm now more adventurous and willing to give things a go.

So watch this space. After the balcony is fixed we're going to go plant hunting for some more long-lived plants - perhaps a blueberry bush and a dwarf lemon tree. Who knows?

Balcony Garden: Harvest Monday #63

A few posts back someone commented on my post about my sandwich with balcony grown lettuce as being just about the most underwhelming blog post ever. Well, my friend, I'm about to exceed all of your disappointments with this post!

The Boy and I started the Lite n Easy diet about 8 weeks ago and since then I've not been cooking meals. Each night we just heat up one of the diet's (mostly revolting) frozen dinners.  Because the tomatoes are STILL producing fruit I add a few to each dinner to make sure they're not going to waste.

And, how's that for a thrilling post my friends?

Balcony Garden: Harvest Monday #62

There are SO many tomatoes on the balcony that we are eating them with nearly every meal. Luckily I'm not sick of them...yet.

It's not all tomatoes out there though. Despite hacking off most of the basil (in the hope that it would die and stop stinking up my house) it's grown back bigger and better than before. Sigh.

I always say it's a good idea to cut your homegrown fruit and veggies in half (at least) to see what lurks with in. If you're skeptial about this advice just have a look at the photo below...I wouldn't fancy biting into this tomato and getting a nasty, wiggly surprise.

I'm sure it's no suprise that tomatoes + basil - caterpillars = pasta for dinner.

Happy gardening, Miss Piggy xoxo

Balcony Garden: Harvest Monday #61

This post is a seminal point in my career as a Balcony Gardener!

I think for the fourth time EVER I had enough veggies ripe AT THE SAME TIME that I could actually make a salad *happy dance*.

It was a salad with only three ingredients but it sure tasted GREAT! Maybe in a few years when the stars align again we'll have another salad, but until then I'll have to live on the memory of this one.

Happy gardening, Miss Piggy xoxo

Balcony Garden: Harvest Monday #60

My colleague gifted me a few little seedlings of Mizuna a few months ago. I'd never seen this leafy green before, let alone heard of it but I was happy to put it into a pot on the balcony and see what became of it.

It didn't take long for it to take off...and take over the pot it was sharing with my beloved cos lettuce.

After just a few weeks it had started to flower so I thought I'd better get in and use it up. It's quite peppery in flavour, like rocket and I'd had grand plans of using this to make a pesto but when the time came I noticed that it had a plague of aphids hiding under the leaves...blergh!

Before the aphid invasion however I'd picked enough leaves to use in a smoked salmon pasta that we normally have with rocket. As I was preparing this I thought that the peppery flavour of the Mizuna might ruin the dish but it was actually great! I'd happily grown this again...sans aphids of course.

Happy gardening, Miss Piggy xoxo

Balcony Garden: Harvest Monday #59

Cucumbers! Finally!

There's no way to hold a cucumber is there without it looking kind of...rude (if you know what I mean).  But I was so impressed with the size of these little beauties that some hand modelling was required.

I'm not sure if these cucumbers were ripe or unripe (how do you tell, really?). They look a bit green applies in this photo but they tasted good enough in this Chinese Cucumber Salad that is a firm favourite in my house.

Happy gardening, Miss Piggy xoxo

Balcony Garden: Harvest Monday #58

The balcony garden tomatoes are ripening so fast now that it's hard to come up with uses for them all. I've embarked on what I like to call "the tomato diet" which involves including a tomato or three with nearly ever meal.

We need to eat our tomatoes as soon as they are ripe otherwise they risk rotting on the vine (which so far has only happened to one poor tomato - I think he had a worm in him but I just lopped him over the balcony without conducting a postmortem).

Thankfully most of the tomatoes I've been picking from the balcony have been good to go - no bugs or rot within cooee!

We do love a good breakfast fry-up in my house and nothing tastes as great as some homegrown fried tomatoes topped with a bit of homemade pesto from...you guessed it...homegrown basil.  

Happy garden, Miss Piggy xoxo

Balcony Garden: Harvest Monday #57

The lettuce has come to the end of its life. I've noticed some leaves that are looking a bit sunburt and they have a silvery shine to them. The lettuce is becoming more stalk than leaf and it's basically just keeled over and died. Oh well, it was a short but very productive life!

Nevertheless, there were still a few good leaves left to go onto a sandwich for lunch. I hardly ever have sandwiches for lunch at home, but the combination of fresh bread and crisp, freshly picked lettuce is a hard match to beat.

Happy gardening, Miss Piggy xoxox

Balcony Garden: Harvest Monday #56

Lettuce! Or in this state Lettuce Trees as I like to call them...

I love growing Cos Lettuce out on the balcony. Firstly, if you just pinch the leaves off from the bottom it keeps on producing leaves for quite a few months! Secondly, it's super easy to grow. Thirdly, the caterpillars don't seem to be into it...and...

...fourthly, Caesar Salad! Enough said.

Happy gardening, Miss Piggy xoxo

Balcony Garden: Harvest Monday #55

So, with all the talk around here about tomatoes and basil you're probably wondering what's been going on with my mint. The "mint that just will not die"!

I'm pleased to report that it's doing fine...more the fine.

I prune it, it grows back, the caterpillars devour it, I prune off the dead bits and it grows back again...and again...and again. Out of everything that I've grown on my balcony the mint is a keeper, as is my rosemary. If you're having trouble getting your gardening started then mint is the way to go (just make sure you plant it in a pot on its own as it has a massive root system that will strangle everything that it's planted with).

After the last pruning I decided to use some of the mint in a homemade potato salad that we had on Christmas Eve with prawns. Yum!

Happy gardening, Miss Piggy xoxo

Balcony Garden: Harvest Monday #54

It has been exciting times out on the balcony garden with the first tomato ripening a few weeks ago and ready to eat. I cannot tell you how excited I am that this tomato has come full-term.

Of course I spoke too soon...

...as I was leaning in to pick my beloved tomato I noticed that it had a big spot of blossom-end rot...on it's bottom! Noooooooooooooooo! This is usually the result of inconsistent watering. Even though I was extra careful this year about watering regularly I think all of the rain we've had followed by super hot days was my undoing.

There was no way however that Mother Nature was stealing my first tomato of the season away from me. I chopped off the bottom and the rest of the tomato was totally fine - so The Boy and I ate it.

 

On a non-tomato related noted I found this poor little guy floundering in one of my buckets of water. I didn't notice him at first and he got a squirt with the hose and was looking rather worse for wear for about 15 minutes. He hang out on my hand for a while and dried off.  

When he was feeling better, and could stand up straight, I popped him onto whatever-this-plant-is. He hung around for ages...so I named him Eric! Praying Mantis are one of my MOST favourite bugs...I spend AGES checking them out whenever we go to the zoo. My favourite are the kind that look like leaves (which is not Eric). LOVE them!

Happy gardening, Miss Piggy xoxo

Balcony Garden: Harvest Monday #53

During the Christmas break I harvested a bunch of my stinky, caterpillar infested basil and made up a jar of pesto (sans caterpillars...of course). Exciting times!

Lately we've really gotten into pizza with a pesto base, rather than a tomato based sauce. It's super tasty, even though it's probably 1000 times the calories, but you only live once so pile on the pesto I say! This pizza had a combination of prawns, Spanish onion, Parmesan cheese and pesto. Super simple and super tasty.

I used most of the remaining pesto for a pasta salad that I took to my various family visits on Christmas Day. I wasn't sure if the pesto actually tasted OK (I find it hard to tell as I find the basil a bit overwhelming...plus I think all my cooking sucks) but I got loads of compliments so win:win! I was even told by a pesto hater that they loved my salad *fist pump*!

Happy garden everyone, Miss Piggy xoxo

Balcony Garden: Harvest Monday #52

I think that I did my tomatoes a disservice by co-planting them with basil. The basil has grown so tall that it's muscling the tomatoes for space and causing a lot of shade over the tomatoes. And, I'm thinking that tomatoes probably need sunshine to do their thing.

Also, caterpillars! I couldn't help but think that perhaps I was bringing more caterpillars to the tomatoes by having such inviting basil close by for them to chomp on. My basil was being eating alive by caterpillars...and they were starting in on my precious tomatoes!!!

Ergo, I decided to pick most of my basil...it was time to put those caterpillars on starvation diet.

There is pretty much only one thing to do with a massive bowl of basil, and that is to make Pesto. I used the recipe from Indira Naidoo's book though I added WAY more Parmesan cheese than she recommends as I found the taste of the basil just too strong for me.

As much as love Pesto I still find the smell of basil totally overpowering, especially as you need to check each + every leaf for bugs before you blend them up. I'm also not sure but the olive oil in my pesto keeps being absorbed...maybe my fridge is too high...or something (HELP)!

Do you like Pesto and if so do you have a great recipe for homemade Pesto?

Happy gardening, Miss Piggy xoxo