One sad empty balcony

For some time I’ve been trying to do something ‘different’ with my living room balcony.  Its been over a year of experimenting and I’m nearly there I think.  Unfortunately for the alyssum I got ruthless the other day and decided they just had to go!

 We moved into our current apartment last August and I was excited that we’d found a place with so much potential for plants!  It has two small balconies, one large balcony, lots of natural indoor light and a huge rooftop terrace.  With this in mind I decided I wanted to be a little non conventional with the large balcony.  It flows right off our lounge room and I wanted something that would have great visual impact.   And so began the quest…

The area gets blasted by the hot summer sun and its fair share of wind.  Come the winter, shade dominates the site, as well as some wind still.  There’s also no tap.  Hardly an ideal location.

I decided to use old styrofoam boxes as planter boxes – they’re free if you bug your local fruitshop for some and they have good insulating properties.  These were then painted brown to help hide that they were indeed styrofoam boxes and filled with potting mix.  And now for the plantings:

Attempt No.1

 I sourced a bulk supply of paper daisy seed (Rhodanthe chlorocephala) and merrily sowed them.  Being native to arid regions of Australia I figured they’d do well and I wistfully imaged my balcony looking like a meadow of wildflowers.  Despite giving them over 6 months to deliver they just looked terrible.  In hindsight I should have planted them in autumn, not spring, giving them longer to establish before they went into flowering mode.  Shame on me for believing the planting guide on the seed packet!

Strawflower seedlings

Spindly strawflowers

Attempt No.2
Ready for another go I put in linaria and nigella seeds in the early autumn.  Linarias are such pretty things I wish people grew them more often.  In this instance they did come up and flower but never really filled out.  The nigella was slower growing and only a few flowered before being attacked by aphids on mass.  The writing was on the wall – this plant combo wasn’t going to give me my meadow of flowers either.

Attempt No.3
By now I was more than a little disheartened, having spent a year looking at brown styrofoam boxes, filled with dirt and a few tragic plants.  Time to get serious!  Out went the meadow of flowers idea and instead I went for block plantings which hopefully would still be impactful.  I went for plants I could cheaply get my hands on (especially by cutting or seed) and that were tough.   The successful candidates ended up as: aptenia, yellow gazania, purple vinca, dichondra ‘Silver Falls’, purple aylssum, white autumn crocus (Zephyranthes candida) and seaside daisy (Erigeron karvinskianus).

That was a few month ago and for the most part I’ve been happier with these results than the previous two attempts.  The other day though I decided to give up on the alyssum.  It had finished flowered and was looking pretty average.  Rather than wait for it to bounce back or for new seedlings to come up I yanked it out.  I’m not known for my patience 🙂

I’ve replace it with cuttings of sedum “Gold Mound”.  Even though they need to grow a lot I’m already happy with my decision.  Next on the hit list is possibly the seaside daisy.  Its looking great but seems to be least tolerant of the hot weather, wilting fast.  I assume its the restrict root zone that’s doing it but my enthusiasm for lugging watering cans from the kitchen does not stretch to a daily routine!  Watch this space!

PS Don’t forget to check out The Plant Addict Shop while you’re here. 

You’ll find great gift ideas for garden lovers and fellow plant addicts!