Plantstravaganza
Guys I am super excited about my garden this summer. Last year my balcony was a little sparse, but my herb garden was a rousing success. This year I'm going all out with the outdoor plants.
A few weeks ago I mentioned my attempt to replicate the vertical pallet garden that's been making it's rounds across the internet. I'm happy to say that I have achieved the first round of success! The process was a moderate pain but I'm more or less done with the hard part, and I'm pretty happy with its progress so far.
Sanding that sucker started out with the dream of rounded corners and polished slats, but quickly settled to just turning it from a splintered nightmare to a slightly less splintered nightmare. This model of pallet is pretty thin, but it still holds an inconveniently large volume of dirt, so planting was not exactly easy. But the plants are starting to settle in nicely. My balcony is east facing, but has a solid front, so I planted shade-loving flowers on the bottom two rows. The middle rows are ground-cover that should spread out over the next few weeks, and the seeds I planted on the top two rows are just starting to sprout. The pallet spent a week layed out while the dirt and roots settled, but I've got it fully propped up now, and completed it with a row of sunflower seeds on top a few days ago.
My whole balcony is turning out pretty great so far. On the left are my strawberry plants that I hope start sprouting soon, and on the right are some lily-of-the-valley I got earlier this spring. And on the other side we've got...
...a couple of shelving units I picked up at the thrift store this week. The black shelves on the left is kind of cheapish but cute, so I'd move it inside this winter, but if it rusts through over the summer I won't cry. The little green stand though is adorable and I hope it survives.
The pots I just finished planting, and are mostly flowers this year. Here's hoping they sprout quickly and I get a really nice looking porch in about a month.
I picked up two pallets in preparation for my pallet garden project, but after planting the one I decided I'm good. It was taking up space in the corner until I realized that this style of pallet is a decent make-shift bike rack (but if anyone needs a pallet and can pick it up, let me know).
I've also got a table of plants inside the apartment that you can somewhat make out in the second picture. Most of my herbs and edibles are indoors but I'll be shuffling them around now as the weather starts to warm up. Of note is a blueberry stalk that will hopefully survive long enough to become a bush this summer. If my strawberries ever sprout, here's hoping for a fruitful summer harvest (hahalololololol).