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  • April 23, 2018

London Unattached - London Lifestyle Blog

Luxury London Lifestyle Blog for the over 40s with food, travel, diet and restaurant reviews - London Unattached

Lessons from Year One Balcony Gardening

September 4, 2011 by Fiona Maclean Leave a Comment

Balcony Gardening – Growing your own

The biggest lesson is that it works!  This summer I’ve bought aubergines, garlic, coriander and courgettes.  For the rest of the summer (from around the start of June), my vegetables and herbs have been entirely home grown.  I’m rather impressed by that. For someone living alone it has been a godsend, I can pick exactly what I need rather than ending up with huge quanties of things I don’t want and can’t eat.  That’s particularly true of herbs but also of new potatoes, carrots, peas, beans and wild rocket – all of which are much, much nicer if you can shorten the time between cropping and eating.  As an example, here’s what I picked today.  And everything except the chillis has been eaten already;)

 

Today's Harvest

 

Things that haven’t worked

Beetroot – it has too big a root system to work in a raised balcony planter.  I got a few tiny beets which were lovely but not justifiable for the amount of space it took

Upsidedown Tomato Planter.  An unmitigated disaster, I ended up with a dried up looking apology for a tomato plant

Aubergines – well, still a bit of time to go, but I don’t think I am going to get a fruit.  They have grown fine, but not flowered yet.  Next year I am trying courgettes which my friends tell me are a little easier.  Or I may start the aubergines inside on the heated propagator

Things that I could have done better with

Peas – were fabulous while they lasted, but a bit overwhelming.  Next time I am staggering the planting so that hopefully they last a little longer into the season

Potatoes – Similarly, absolutely lovely new potatoes, but I think they went in the ground a little too late for London, so I ONLY got new potatoes.

Tumbling Tom Tomatoes – sorry, they grew fine, but I just didn’t like them.  They were too densly fleshy for me and not juicy enough

Fennel – I grew the wrong sort so I didn’t get bulbs…though the leaves have made brilliant cooking ingredients.

The Best So Far

Baby Carrots – still eating these, I can pull a few for supper every day

Runner beans – taken over one planter completely!

Peas – Anyone who has eaten peas they’ve just picked and chucked in boiling water will know why!

Gardener’s Delight Tomatoes – I’ve loved eating these and they are STILL producing a lot of fruit.

Plum Tomatoes – yet to pass the taste test, these are just starting to ripen but they look very promising

Herbs – parsley, sage, rosemary, thyme, oregano, basil, greek basil, dill, fennel, tarragon – all growing nicely on my balcony or windowsill.  For some reason my coriander just doesn’t work.

Chillis – I’ve had a few Jalapeno and a few hotter chillis so far.  All the seeds produced at least one plant (that’s about 7 varieties), but one or two haven’t produced fruit yet.

Radishes and spring onions – I grew these at the start of the summer and really enjoyed.  Ran out of space to keep planting – next year I can plan things a bit differently

Various green salad leaves including wild rocket – I’m still happily cropping my wild rocket.

Plans for next year

2 more balcony window boxes so I can grow strawberries

Fewer chilli plants, no tumbling toms and no beetroot!

French beans or bobby beans (because I really like them and they are great cold in salads as well as hot)

More space for the wild rocket, radishes and spring onions

More space for the baby carrots

Staggered planting schedule so I don’t end up with everything at once

An earlier start for the potatoes so hopefully I get a bigger crop.

Buy a hose.  Even with an 8′ square balcony garden, watering veg is hard work without one!

 

Oh and I’m planning to plant some garlic in a few weeks…and maybe some other over-winter vegetables.  Any comments or suggestions from older/wiser/more experienced green hands welcome!  Hurrah for Balcony Gardening!

 

 

 

 

 

 

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Filed Under: Balcony Gardening Tagged With: beans, peas, Tomatoes

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  • April 12th  - National Grilled Cheese Sandwich Day

    The USA celebrates National Grilled Cheese Sandwich Day on April 12th.   Well, why not?   Regarded as one of the top comfort foods in America, the version we eat today originated in the 1920s when sliced bread and American cheese became easily available.  

    image

    Of course, those of you from the USA and those of you wishing to join the celebrations can do so in London!  Head for the glamorous art-deco inspired Colony Grill at the Beaumont Hotel and you’ll find the menu offers a Grilled Cheese sandwich with Dill Pickle, perfect for National Grilled Cheese Sandwich Day.  While you are there, enjoy a cocktail or three - and perhaps a couple of other American classics - we love the Buttermilk Fried Chicken and perhaps Bananas Foster flambeed in dark rum for dessert. 

    Enjoy!

    Colony Grill
    The Beaumont  Brown Hart Gardens
    Mayfair  London  W1K 6TF 
     

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