Organized Balcony

I hate a messy house and I hate, even more, a messy outdoor balcony for all to see. For the longest time, I had no better option for all our miscellaneous outdoor gardening tool stuff, than to have it out on an open shelf covered with a table cloth. It looked terrible and was an eye sore, but I just didn't know what else to do. We don't have a garage (arg, student housing).

Well, I'd had enough. I decided I wanted to buy something that looked nice, had more space and was sturdier than our plastic shelving unit. And, a few weeks of waiting and Craigslist scourring (I was cheap and didn't want to buy a brand new one from Lowes), I found my cabinet :)

When covered, this is what the embarrassment looked like:

 Uncovered was even worse:

 And now, with my awesomely cool cabinet :) Ya, I have all that plastic wrapped stuff up there. It's our small camping tables...I ran out of space...sigh :/ I moved all our camping gear from our tiny closet into this...I don't need a lantern, mattress pump, box of camping tools, snow boots and dusty hiking boots in my closet amongst my clothes thank you very much.  I also have to do something about your snow sled (see that blue UFO disc of an eye sore). It was next to our washing machine inside and I just couldn't stand it being there anymore. Dust catcher!!! I don't want to get rid of it, but it's cracked down the middle, so it's probably no good for sliding down an icy hill. Either way, the balcony looks much better than before. Less embarrassing I must say. And, it locks shut :) With a lock I haven't bought yet...crap, better get a move on now that I am confessing to the world my stuff is open for the taking!

I am also excited to say that I planted my first ever radish seeds and they have started to germinate in no time. I was so excited, you should have seen me. It was as if someone had bought me a brand new car. Oh the little things in life that excite me :o)

This is just 3 days after planting them. Look at those babies :)

A day later, they have grown even more. Sniff, mama's so proud! 

I've also planted two new tomato plants :)  

 

My Jasmine plant is taking over my balcony. I'm waiting to get the notice that I have to remove all their tendrils from the railing. Till then, take over Jasmine plant, take over! I need privacy.

 Happy Friday Everyone :)

New Flowers in My Garden

I wish I had more pots to plant flowers in, actually I wish I had a small patch of land to call my own, but more pots means more care and more hassle and more pruning and more cleaning.  I barely have time for the little garden that I have. 

This time around, I decided to be brave and buy something that most probably will take over my balcony if I don't watch it; a small jasmine plant.  I just couldn't resist the smell and wanted something different this time around.  Something tall and something pretty :) It's really beautiful, and I can only hope that it survives! 

My tomato plant is already budding with flowers :) Yay!

I also spent a good couple of hours cleaning the balcony with some 20+ buckets of water.  There was so much dust and dirt everywhere (not from the planting, but from the rains and wind) and we don't have a garden hose or water outlet, so Fishi's bucket to the rescue (thank you for sharing Fishi).  Although I considered buying a really long garden hose and hooking it up to the kitchen sink...but then I would have to store the hose on my balcony that already has no space.  And then I considered borrowing my in-laws garden hose, but then I realized that I would have to bring it over here, carry it up to the second floor, put down plastic everywhere so that the hose wouldn't get my kitchen and living room dirty and then...ya, no thank you! Too much work.  So, broom, mop, old hubby's t-shirts and bare feet...here we go.  I will spare you the details, but it was messy and I was exhausted.  But, now it's so clean I could lick the floor.  I mean, not really lick, but you get the idea.  My poor neighbors down stairs didn't say anything, even with a waterfall going over their balcony.  I really should bake them some sweets and take it down there.  I would hate to be a neighbor to me. Gosh...so annoying! Kill your plants already will ya!

Flowers Galore

Looking out onto my balcony and seeing how my flowers are thriving brings a big smile to my face.  These flowers that I planted a few months back are just loving where they are.  They have taken over and are just beautiful.

 More tomatoes!

The flowers are growing out and over my balcony ledge :) 

 Yay for cloudy weather!!

 This poor house plant was a gift, but it had a  horrible worm infestation...I don't know why, but I had to move it outside.  I managed to get all the worms to "leave" and really didn't think it was going to survive...but look at this...little buds...just amazing.

Tomatoes

The tomatoes on my tomato plant are beginning to ripen.  The weather has been so hot here the last couple of weeks, and although it has made me miserable, the tomatoes seem to be happy :)  These tomatoes are a big larger than cherry tomatoes and in my opinion even more delicious.

YAY! There are more to come :)

Dinner on the balcony

After a very long and frustrating day on Sunday, we decided to relax a bit by having dinner on our balcony.  It was taco night, 3 nights in a row (haha...we're bad I know).

Taco and salad...yum!