… on the last day of (September) summer

… on the last day of (September) summer

I imagine you all know the nursery rhyme song about the The Big Ship Sails on The Ally-Ally-Oh (on the last day of September), well that is where I get my inspiration for the title of this blog!

This being a gardening forum I’m not about to talk about ships or the months of the year – no, not even the seasons (though these do concern us gardeners quite a bit!)

No, I want to show you the balcony I garden on & from where my avatar name derives.

So here is a view on our balcony as you might have seen it if you had walked past it yesterday (or today or tomorrow for that matter!):

Balcony as seen from the street on the last day of summer 20th September 2016:

Here are some other views taken at the same time as the first one:

Balcony seen from the right hand side:

Balcony seen from the centre:

Balcony seen from the left hand side:

Begonias flowering on balcony railings from the inside:

Trailing Begonias Apricot and Salmon pink on balcony railings:

Dahlia ‘Diablo’ on balcony floor seen from outside:

Dianthus chinensis: China Pink ‘Baby Doll’ on balcony railings:

Carnation (florist red) flowering on balcony railings:

I call this “florist red” because it came originally from a couple of cuttings from a bunch of red Carnations our daughter bought her mum when she lived with us after returning from Spain.

Fuchsia in strawberry planter on balcony:

Fuchsia red and white on balcony floor:

Fuchsia Purple & white in hanging basket on balcony:

Variegated Geraniums ‘Vancouver Centennial’ on balcony:

This is one Geranium a really love!

Gladiolus flowering on balcony railings:

A Gladiolus corm somehow found its way into the trough that sits in the centre of the balcony railings. When I first noticed it it was too late to do anything about it. I was surprised when I saw a flower spike was developing! But, as you can see, it grew & flowered very well & wasn’t broken down by the wind as I fully expected to happen!

Lavatera flowering on balcony:

These are seedlings that I never found space for in the pots, tubs & troughs on the balcony! They have grown & flowered in the same little pots I put them in when I did the first transplant!

There are half a dozen little pots of the red florist Carnations I rooted in the seedtray with the Lavateras. I find this Carnation a doodle to root!

But I don’t just grow flowers I also grow tomatoes! In fact I’ve grow a few plants almost every year of the 15 years we have lived in this flat & I’ve been gardening on this balcony!

Here are a few photos of the yellow cherry tomatoes that are growing on the balcony this year:

Yellow cherry tomatoes ripening on balcony:

Tomatoes seen from behind the Begonias on the balcony railings from outside:

I have enough plants on my balcony to make up a 2nd blog! One of the difficulties is that it is almost impossible to get a decent photo of most of them together as I can’t move away far enough so I can only take partial photos. Look at the two of the Begonias, I took one from the left side & one from the right side yet not all the 13 pots of Begonias are visible in the two photos!

I expect that many of you wonder at the strings you can see in the photos of the balcony – well, wonder no more, here’s the answer:

Morning Glory climbing up chicken wire:Morn

Morning Glory climbing up strings:

Early in the morning on the first day of autumn 2016:

Now we have started the autumn I think I can safely say the summer of 2016 is well & truly over for this year!