Just like I had predicted, I did not exclusively stick to the shopping list I had written down together with Mr A for last Friday’s visit of Raritätenbörse (Rare Plant Fair) and a few extras found their way into my bags, which I now have to stow/ plant somewhere so Mr A doesn’t notice them until their too big to get rid of (just kidding, of course I proudly presented every little weed to him).
First, pictures of the fair:
I already mentioned Arche Noah in my blog post here.
From them I bought
- 2 kinds of basil (Italian and Greek)
- Delf’s cocktail tomato
- cos lettuce
- another kind of lettuce
- dill
- coriander
- Bih jolokio chili (apparently, a 10+)
- malabar spinach
- kiwano
Then I discovered a stall dedicated solely to plants one can cultivate on balconies – by Biosphäre Waldgarten and – completely unexpectedly – bought some more:
- Mexican mini cucumber
- crystal ball cucumber
- golden nugget pumpkin
What I could not find/ did not buy were
- lemon balm
- arugula (seeds)
- more spinach (seeds)
- nusturtium (seeds)
Since the weather hasn’t played along nicely this weekend (it was very cold last night and won’t be warm until mid next week), I didn’t get to muck around as I had planned. However, I’m somewhat optimistic I will at least be able to plant the lettuce into a flower box (where it grew abundantly last year) and replant the tomatoes, eggplant and capsicum plants into slightly bigger containers later this afternoon. We’ll see.
For next Saturday, Mr A and I have planned this year’s first tour of IKEA and Obi (the local warehouse) to stock up on necessities, such as red paper napkins but also – finally – a desk for myself as well as the remaining containers, soil and trellis for our balcony. Can’t wait!
Then it’s only another two-ish weeks before I can eventually put everything out and together. I’m so excited to be sitting in the middle of my balcony garden, soaking up the evening sun, surrounded by my sprouting, blooming and soon bearing plants!
How are your plants coming along? Have you put anything outside already?
I was wondering which plants you would get when I saw your photo of the Raritätenbörse on Instagram 😀
What a lovely selection you made! I’m wondering if “Bih jolokio chili” is the same as Bhut Jolokia? << I've had this one last year but I had it next to other chilies and then they made sweet love (lol) and produced some spicy ones and some not so spicy ones, it was like a Russian roulette. But really funny. I've saved the seeds of my weird mixed-chilies and planted them, but I don't know if they will be large enough to produce fruits this year or the next ones 🙂
I wanted to clean up the balcony and place all my plants outside a few days ago but I didn't have a broom 😀 Now I have one so I'm planning on cleaning everything up tomorrow. My raspberry is doing great! I'm so proud. And I've supported my tomato plants with wooden sticks because they needed it already.
It is probably the same plant, yes. How cute that your plants are so comfortable they actually cross-breed! My chilis this year were a complete defeat. Not a single seed (taken from last year’s huge yield) grew into a plant. No idea what went wrong…
A broom is absolutely necessary, that’s right! We also have the luxury of a tap and a garden hose which makes cleaning up after my endeavours so much easier.
I’m looking forward to reading how your tomatoes and chilis keep growing 🙂