Balcony Garden Update

The balcony garden is starting to look like a real garden and it may even begin to produce edibles next month.  It was such a cold, wet Spring that everything got a late start; pair that up with an eastern exposure that limits direct sunlight to the mornings, and things have been slow to develop.  Despite that, the green onions, Takanotsume peppers, lettuce, thyme,  marigolds, Forget-me-nots and radishes have all sprouted, as have some volunteer sunflowers.  The stapeliads are enjoying being outside and are showing new growth and one may even bloom.  I recently found a vintage wrought iron plant stand with vestiges of blue paint at a local resale shop and it looks great filled with stapeliads.  I've run out of floor space and now am looking for baskets I can hang along the railing and fill with flowers and strawberries.  The one Euphorbia obesa seed that sprouted is doing well, but looks nothing like the mature plants, so if I didn't know what it was, I don't think I could guess correctly.

The vintage plant stand

My 1st Better Bush tomato

Japanese eggplant blossom

Forget-me-nots

Green bunching onion sprouts

Korean Hot Pepper blossom, but no fruit yet.

The orange seedlings are looking good

Radish sprouts

First strawberries

Takanotsume peppers getting their 1st true leaves

More radishes

Sage sprouts

Grass onions, aka Walking onion

Russian Tarragon

Thyme seedlings; the seeds are from Monticello.

Euphorbia obesa seedling

Echidnopsis cereiformis flower buds

On the fourteenth, I heard a commotion outside and thought someone was having a party.  Went on the balcony to check it out and there were fireworks going off in celebration of Flag Day.  After the fireworks ended, the full moon came peeking out from a cloud bank, presenting a great photo op I couldn't resist.

I love the interplay of light and darkness