Gardening

Planted about 4 years ago, and gets dead headed every year. It started out as a multi coloured plant, down to just the one colour now.

The 1st flower wilted away....see it there in the left. The 2nd flower appeared and is much bigger and healthier. Waiting to see if I get any fruit here.

Things are progressing fairly well since my last post. It rained for about a week straight, which made me fear for my plants--I've been warned heavily about over-watering. Some seem like they're doing great. Others not so much.

My "Whopper" tomato plant, the only one in a container, flowered and it's producing fruit:

I think we've been anticipating that this would be the first and best of the tomatoes. It's got the best starting medium (Miracle-Gro potting soil) and the most depth to grow. It's gotten tall, as you can see. The question is when I'll need to fertilize further. Miracle-Gro says it'll be good for six months. Should I add fertilizer before that, since it's fruiting and using so many resources from its soil?

This is two of my cucumbers growing into a kind of tangle. They're blooming in spite of their small size. I'm thinking my shallow bed is limiting them, as feared. Is there anything I should do? Per my last post, I did add the 10-10-10 Scott's fertilizer about two weeks ago. The instructions say to wait two months. Is there some sort of fertilizing I should do in the interim?

Here's two of the four tomato plants in the bed (the first is my Celebrity variety, the second ones of two Romas). They seem fairly healthy, but remain small. Several are flowering. I did prune branches that were dragging on the ground, as I've been told those could be vectors for fungal infections. Only the second plant above still has many branches close to the ground. Do those need to go, too? The leaves seem healthy.

As advised, I pruned the flowers on both my basil plants. The sweet basil, shown above, has some leaves that are yellowing. Do those need to go, too?

My dill is looking fine overall, but it's had yellowed leaves toward the bottom and one side since I transplanted it. Do those need to be trimmed?

Finally, my loose leaf lettuce sprouted weeks ago and is stuck at this size. Given what I've seen from everything else I've planted from seed elsewhere, they're way behind. I did not fertilize for fear that it'd be too much. Is there anything I can do for them?

That's all the major developments. I'll post my nascent flowers another time--they're growing at an insane pace.

As always, thanks for any guidance y'all feel like providing!

Happy Saturday all! I’m growing corn for the second year in my little raised bed and I’m trying it from seed this time. It’s mostly gone well and some of them are to the point I should cull them down to one sprout a spot, but I was wondering if it would be feasible to transplant the second highest stalk on each to fill in spots none of them sprouted from. If so, any tips on the process?

There's more photo's but I don't know how to share them.

TL;DR: windy balcony up high invaded by aphids, what to do?

Situation
I have a balcony some 10 storeys high, in the Netherlands, and like to make it into a lush miniature balcony garden, so I have a lot of plants.
Unfortunately the balcony often gets a lot of wind, and nearly all the plants are being invaded by aphids of various sorts. Many of the plants are dying or struggling, with a small exception of the broccoli, hedera helix, some gifted alium bulbs, and a recently added hop plant which grows like there's no tomorrow.
The balcony only has an open front; the sides and top are all closed. Despite that, even the plants in the back are regularly shaken by gusts of wind.

What I've tried

• given the plants plenty of water and nutrients with worm compost
• squished a bunch of the aphids (not my thing, but worth a shot)
• added local flowering plants to attract natural enemies
• added other flowers like common marigold and a ladybug flower seed mix
• led the rose plant to the front of the balcony
• added two hedera helix plants in the hopes they'd grow into a sort of frame around the front, but they're not doing much yet
• bought and spread out ladybug larvae multiple times over the past few years
• added two bee/insect hotels
• filled a pot with leaves and placed it upside-down on a large planter, hoping to attract earwigs and other aphid enemies
• added a ladybug hotel; a wooden box with horizontal slids, filled with leaves

The ladybug larvae help a little, but the problem with an open balcony is that eventually they fly away.

Effects of plants on attracting enemies and repelling aphids
I've been trying to attract natural enemies like ladybugs and hover flies by adding flowering plants, but it's not working.
This year I've had about half a dozen marigolds flowering, and a few other plants, but they don't last long because of the aphids. The rose plant and white grape plant are also suffering from white fuzzy aphid-like bugs, shown in the photo, in addition to the green aphids.
Even the mint plants and rosemary, which supposedly aphids don't like, were attacked by the little green bastards.

--

I'm running out of ideas.
I'm thinking of putting more native and local plants on the front of the balcony, but the way it's going now, I'm not sure if they would survive.
The lower half of the front is behind glass, blocking direct outside access to passing insects. Maybe it would help if I lead climbing plants along the front sides and the top? The challenge there is that it can get very windy, and this being an apartment building, I can't have plants escaping the balcony.

I'd prefer to solve this in a natural sustainable way, do I haven't used the soap option.
I can keep buying ladybug larvae, but that will get expensive with the amount of aphids every year.

Please oh wise internet, can you help me?

Was so happy to see my sad, under-soiled tomato plant putting out flowers, but it's also attracted aphids! I'm too poor to even afford pesticides, and was planning on growing organic anyways, but I'm not getting any help with pest predators from the surrounding apartment environment (cropped lawn grass and dandelions)

How do I attract natural predators of plant pests, like hoverflies, parasitoid wasps, ladybeedles and others without just buying a pack from a store? I want to engage in the war on bugs on the side of bugs, but the bugs that eat the bugs that eat my plants, for essentially a budget of $0. How the hell am I supposed to do this...

Oh and if anyone's wondering, I bought these plants from the farmer's market on EBT because they were cheap but I can't buy any dirt or bigger pots. So I'm working with the best I got until I get a job and a paycheck

Planted Pink Ladies along with Red California Poppy to bring some life to my front yard. I've grown tired of the mono lawns I've seen and wanted to spruce things up.

It's been amazing seeing the flowers blossoming as well as fruits growing. Currently got blackberries, boysenberries, raspberries, blueberries, and grapes looking healthy as heck and pushing flowers!

And that, right there, is why I garden.

I want to thank everyone who responded with advice for my last post.

Per the advice I received, I went ahead and found a 10-10-10 Scott's fertilizer. I tried to apply it or the instructions, mixing it into the soil, and watered it in. I'm hoping for good things. One thing I'm curious about: the instructions indicate this particular product should be applied every two months, which seems like a long interval. Shouldn't I be fertilizing more often? Did I choose the wrong kind?

Also, I finally got some straw and used it as mulch. It seems like it's keeping the soil wetter for longer.

As for my plants:

My potted tomato plant is taking off, more so than the ones I have in the actual bed. I installed a stake and a cage. I had primed of the first flower, but I believe it may be ready to bloom again. Do I need to keep trimming the flowers until it gets bigger?

The onions I started later are taking off, too. I planted them as far apart as my instructions suggested, but I'm wondering if they need to be thinned out. The container is small, I know, but I'm hoping it's just deep enough for them to succeed. I do worry if I'm keeping them too wet--the container is self-watering, so I've watered them less, but the soil is constantly moist. Will this be a problem later on?

My herbs (rosemary, dill, African and sweet basil, and peppermint) seem to be doing well. The African basil is flowering--do I need to cut these back for any reason?

My cucumbers are growing, but slowly. Three of them are definitely bigger, though one lags behind. I'm thinking the shallow depth of my bed is coming into play here. I wonder if I should try to transfer them to a deep pit like the one tomato I have already mentioned.

The four tomato plants I have in the bed, determinate and semi-determinate, aren't gaining a lot of height, but they do seem bushier. Again, I wonder if the shallowness of my bed is already holding them back. Stakes and cages are in place for the semi-determinate varieties, but I only have stakes for my two Roma plants.

Here's the peppermint I was warned would take over my bed given a chance. Do I need to go ahead and transfer it to a separate area or pot now?

My loose leaf lettuce seeds have sprouted, which is cool. I'm watching them closely to see how it grows. I didn't fertilize these plants since they're so young for fear of hurting them.

Also, the marigold seeds I planted along the edges between the mature marigolds I planted have sprouted, as well.

These pots are on the front side of my house. The small and medium size ones have more marigolds I planted from seed. I'm wondering if they're getting big enough that I will need to thin them out.

The big pot at the bottom has Shasta Daisies. They took a while to sprout, and are growing much more slowly than my other flowers.

I've got two planters with Zinnias I sewed on my porch, and they're really doing well. I'm wondering if and when I should think these too.

I appreciate any advice you guys may have as I progress. I'm trying to learn as much as I can, and you all have been an important part of my education so far.

If everyone is okay with it, I'll continue to post updates. Thanks for your help!

my don't murder anyone over that last zoom call walking path is coming along nicely this spring.

So I bought some wildflower mixture, and they recommend to thin/blend with sand so you can see where you broadcast and go see it easier. So I took one step further and added clover as well.

I have 2 wildflower mixes, 10gs of each, I know it’s probably not enough to get a dense lawn, but that’s also why I thinned it clover that I’ve already started turning the lawn over to.

So I took about 1/2 of one of wildflower packets and mixed it with 1 scoop of clover seed and 5 scoops of play sand. Gonna broadcast my entire front lawn, ther grass isn’t too tall yet, although I should mow to the lowest setting first.

Anyways follow along for updates on this adventure!

They're a bit more leggy than I think is healthy, but hopefully repotting them will help.

It's been a while since I've grown anything. With everything that's happening in the world I decided to restart doing things for myself.

It's a little late in the season so let's see what actually grows. Enjoy!

Spent the day playing around with little bolts to put this together. Should extend my growing window by a month, won’t be able to extend end of season I think though.

Cross post from !balconygardening@slrpnk.net

Last year, I got a bee in my bonnet that I wanted to plant a mulberry fruit tree in our back yard. Did some research and it looked like it would match our temperature zone. After some search, found a skinny but tall sapling (7ft tall, about 1" diameter, with a dozen small leaves) at a nursery not too far away. Got it home, miraculously without any damage.

Dug a 3'x1.5' wide hole in a spot. Soil was dense, clumpy, and full of roots and some construction debris (took them all out). It was also on an incline. Chose it since there weren't any other trees nearby to compete for nutrition. Added organic fertilizer at the bottom, planted the sapling, broke up the soil clumps before putting it back, and added more fertilizer on top.

On subsequent research, this is likely where I went wrong. Should have added loose, gardening soil instead of reusing the clumpy dirt. But I'm a dumbass and really new to this.

Fsst forward. Watered it every day for a month, then twice a week after that. Winter came and all the leaves fell out. We got a fair amount of rain. Now in a dry Spring stretch and I'm back to watering it twice a week. It has twice as many leaves, some fairly large, which is cool.

Thing is, we're a year out, but the trunk hasn't grown much in height or girth. I'm wondering if I messed up and should dig it up and re-plant it with fresh potting soil to give the roots more chance to expand? Or if doing so will damage the root structure? It's also in a reasonably sunny space (good), but also on an incline so a lot of water runs off (bad). I can move it to a more flat space, but that has a lot of shade.

Any suggestions? Replant it with loose soil? Move it to flatter, less sunny space? Or just let it be and see where it goes? Thanks!

I have multiple eggplants in pots inside my screens. They are all flowering, but none are producing actual eggplants. Am I missing something?