Balcony garden

Spent yesterday repotting some recent acquisitions, removed the cover from the greenhouse, resowed plants that failed to sprout in March/April and moved about 1/2 my stapeliads outside for the summer. I notice the 1st tomato on the 'Better Bush' plant and the 1st bloom on the 'Ichiban' eggplant. Also have a couple of 'Takanotsume' Japanese hot pepper sprouts and a couple of strawberries forming. While I don't have near as much room as I do at my home in AZ, I'm trying to make the most out of what I do have.

Nice frogy, with all those little cacti and succulents you have you oughta make a concrete cacti and succulent dish. You could even keep it outside there year round! Just my 2 cents from one out of region forum user to another!
Will

shortleaf, your post made me realize that I needed to update my location information, as I moved to the Chicago area in March. Back in AZ, all of the succulents stayed outdoors year-round, but obviously things have changed dramtically for both me and the plants.

Oh, I see, yeah don't leave them outside all year there..lol
Yeah, you got the container gardening going on alright, I am envious! : )
Will

Thanks, Will. I just bought a nice vintage plant rack and put 10 more Stapeliads out on the balcony. At this point, if I want to put out any more, I'll have to go vertical, as the horizontal is all taken.

Hmm - can you hang flower boxes on the railing for more space?

Yes. I can, just need to decide on the style.

How nice to go out on the balcony and be surrounded by plants! Did you make room for a chair?

Cindy, barely, but yes.

Hope you get to use that chair often!

I got alot of potted plants too, I think near 200 total. Here is my "deck garden". - pic #1
This pic is most of my potted plants, many of them are smaller. pic #2
Sorry about the blurriness of the second photo but apparently the camera was focusing on the screen..lol I have some yard to plant them in but I have that old dilemma, "is that the right spot?", "is this the right spot?"! I'm not the homeowner, although, she says I can plant anything, I probably will get alot of it planted this Summer. I have been losing too many potted plants in the Winter, that's my own fault I know. I plan to get alot of them in the ground. : )
Will

Wow, shortleaf, that's a lot of pots. Do you have to hand-water or are they on a drip system?

Thanks Frogy, I hand water in the summer with the garden hose, it takes about 30 minutes to do the front and back yard. Yeah, it's alot, I've been a bit of a plant hoarder..lol Recently, at our Central Midwest Roundup I got a ton of plants. I love them all, I've probably got 95% of them repotted. I plan on having a heck of a flower/bush/waterplant/ garden. In that above photo looking down it is kinda hard to see that black cluster of pots down there. It has quite a few plants in it alone, I'll post a photo of it down there, about half of those came from the Roundup, I tell you, I'm a lucky person to have so many great plants.
If I lived in Chicago or Seattle and only had little room for plants, I don't know what I'd do!
You must have some good decision making skills there, that would be frustrating, what to keep and what to part with.

I left a lot of things at my home in AZ, but hopefully next Spring we'll be renting a house and I can bring some more plants out here.

Came home from a 10 day vacation and the plant service did a great job keeping everything alive. The Korean hot peppers are starting to produce, the 1st Better Bush tomato is ripening and the first roma tomato is on the vine.

How neat to have a plant service take care of your plants! And what a treat to come back to ripening produce.

Starting to get some strawberries, small but delicious. And now I'm looking forward to some Ichiban eggplant. Harvested a few of the Korean hot peppers; nice flavor and a decent heat level but hoping they'll be a bit hotter when they turn red.