My balcony and garden are producing well. Is everybody satisfied this year?

Hi dhedows, you are right. It is very satisfying to have your own home grown produce.
I know that they are free from chemicals and they are pulled or cut immediately before I use them. Could not be fresher! Thanks for responding.

Hi Kashmereismy cat, thank you for your kind comments. I also really appreciate nature and love to hear the birds singing and see fresh growing plants. I know how lucky I am to have my nice balcony and a very large garden.

Hi Ldyjarhead, thanks for your response. too bad youdid not manage to get your garden fully organised in time for this year and I hope you get it going really well for 2010. I have special mini cucumbers on my balcony and the normal ones in my garden. I love corn but have never tried growing it. I see many fields filled with it and strangely enough nobody picks the cobs. Everything is mashed up by a huge machine and made into animal feeding. Seems a waste.

Hi Alice, I hope you are soon picking your own tomatoes too. Plants are like a woman they respond to kindness and careful handling. Since I live alone my plants get all my love! I love raspberries too but prefer to see them on a plate instead of hanging thick on stems waiting for me to pick them! Col.

I have 7 tomatoes now! woot woot

Hi Alice,
Fantastic! Wait until they are red before you eat them!
I am waiting for my mini cucumbers and peppers but they are growing very slowly.

hiya Col
What would happen if I ate them when they were green? I keep thinking about the movie green fried tomatoes (not that I've seen it) so can they be eaten at the green stage?

Hi alice,I had forgotten about green fried tomatoes. My American friend used to make them. Quite tasty! So were the tomatoes! At the end of September I use the green tomatoes that are still on my garden plants to make chutney. That is really good.
Have some from last year still in the freezer. Need to check what I need and get some chutney made. Have you any red tomatoes yet?

hiya Col hugs*

I have 7 tomatoes on my plant now! (see pic) but they are not red yet. I won't eat them until they are, but was curious about the green ones. Tomato chutney would be nice I'm amazed at how the stalk is holding the weight of them!

Hi mysdianait, almost everyone here has geraniums as well but I prefer my salad crops and I do have plenty of time to devote to them. I am sometimes out early on the balcony wearing just my dressing gown which is necessary since I don't wear anything when I sleep! Lovely to feel the fresh air and the early morning sun. Thank you for your kind response.

Hi Lakota, Pleased to hear your tomatoes are now producing. Some herbs grow like weeds but others can be real difficult to germinate. Did you plant them directly into the garden or in small pots?.

right into the garden I will try something else later or pots next year!

Hi Lakota, I would strongly recommend you start them off in small pots so you can easily control temperature and moisture level until the seeds germinate. You could experiment now and see how it goes if you still have some seed left. By using pots you require less seeds and can make a pack do 2 or even 3 years. Good luck, Col.

this I have thought of doing but havent got back to the store to get some seeds I planted all of them not much in a pack.

Hi kiran, thank you for your friendly response. Gardening does indeed give me a lot of pleasure and satisfaction. Unfortunately the weather has been unkind to me over the last week with heavy rain every day. A lot of rasberries went mouldy with the dampness but I still have more than enough. Today I picked 6 kilos(just over 13 pounds) and there are lots more still to ripen.

Hi lynnemg, there has been a lot of rain here too over the last week and it has destroyed a large part of my raspberry crop. Fortunately there were so many that enough survived. Other plants are quite happy with the rain and my broccoli and cauliflowers are looking great. Hope things pick up with your garden when the rain clears.

Hi Shellyann, as you can read above I have lost a lot of raspberries but could still pull loads today and have lots still to come. I did not weigh the ones I ate and I can tell you that was a lot! Thank you for responding it was nice to hear from you.

Hi mfllower, I really hope all your hard work pays off. It is difficult starting from scratch. Will be interesting to see what your compost container produces.
I have a neighbour who plants pumpkins in her compost heap and they do really well.
I love mangoes but no chance of growing them here. Thanks for your response. Good luck.

Thank you for marking me best response. Its starting to look like it may be some cantalope growing in the compose barrel. I might have to try pumpkins in there since they grow too much to put in our garden. It will be cool to see what comes out of it.