Review of 2009 part ii: Flora

Although the London Vegetable Garden is all about vegetables and growing your own produce in urban spaces, my balcony has not solely been occupied by vegetables! The spring, summer and autumn have seen some beautiful flowers make their home within the London Vegetable Garden, adding more joy and enthusiasm for gardening. Here is a few snaps of flowers throughout 2009:

No Winter Vegetables, but More Flowers...

So, this afternoon's trip to the local garden centre didn't 'bear fruit', so to speak. With no winter seeds in stock and October only two weeks away, I've had to turn to the Internet for a selection of winter seeds – more to follow on this at a later date.

The trip wasn't a complete waste of time however, as I returned laden with some more bedding plants to replace withering window boxes. The main focus of the London Vegetable Garden's central window box is the rather splendid 'Celosia Caracas', more commonly known as Coxcomb or Prince of Wales' Feathers:


Surrounding this fine floral specimen, I have planted some Sweet William plants (Dianthus Barbatus). Hopefully these will bloom nicely over the coming weeks and add a vibrant display of colour to the London Vegetable Garden balcony.

As for the flowers I planted a few weeks ago, the chrysanthemums are starting to swell nicely and the bedding pansies are starting to grow bigger, although show no signs of blooming just yet. The plants that my girlfriend's father sent down in August have also taken on their own lease of life, with beautiful flowers starting to blossom – if anyone can identify what type of flower / plant this is, I'd be most grateful!

Tomatoes - The Journey Comes to an End pt. II

Undeniably one of the biggest joys on the London Vegetable Garden, the tomato plants have sadly come to the end of their lives. Although they've been waning for a while now, they've still been producing some small cherry tomatoes, but even this growth has now dried up.

So yesterday, with heavy heart, I cleared the balcony of these old plants. When planting these, I added a bottomless flowerpot for each plant on top of the grow bag. When I was pulling these plants up yesterday, it amazed me at just how much roots these tomato plants grew!


Even though these plants were withered and dying, they still gave off the lovely pungent aroma that evokes childhood memories of warm greenhouses – beautiful. Looking back, I believe I wrote in a very early London Vegetable Garden blog post that I believed tomatoes would be the hardest challenge for me and was rather sceptical as to whether I'd manage to grow any. In a lovely twist of irony however, the tomato plants have undoubtedly been the biggest success of the London Vegetable Garden, in terms of yield and quality.

For the many urban gardeners out there, the London Vegetable Garden tomatoes are proof that one doesn't need a greenhouse and an extensive garden to grow a decent amount of tomato fruits! Although a balcony won't afford me the state of self-sufficiency I crave, these high-yielding tomato plants ensured that when in crop, I didn't buy tomatoes from the supermarket for a good six weeks. Not only did this save me money and ensure I didn't have to buy modified, inferior supermarket produce, but it was also an absolute joy looking after these hardy and rewarding plants.

My mind is already on next year – I'm setting myself the challenge of beef tomatoes!

Where There's a Will, There's a Way...

One of the very (few) real benefits of gardening on an urban balcony, is that high-rise gardeners are not plagued with pests. I've had many a conversation with fellow gardening enthusiasts bemoaning the snails and slugs wreaking havoc on their plots! Well, it seems that nature always finds a way: when clearing the old tomato plants from the London Vegetable Garden yesterday, I came across not one, but two visitors to the balcony. I can only imagine that this tiny slug and his little worm friend arrived in some bedding plants!

Back from Holiday!

If you've noticed that I've been fairly quiet of late, fear not! My penchant for urban horticulture and container vegetable gardening has not dried up; I have been away on holiday! Last week I spent a beautiful week down in Devon, so after unpacking and acclimatising back to polluted air, noise and generally rude people, I shall get cracking on a proper London Vegetable Garden blog update!

On a botanical note, the climate down in Devon truly is a world away from London, which threw up some interesting photo opportunities. Consider the following few holiday snaps as 'the London Vegetable Garden on tour'!

Autumn Colour...

Last autumn / winter, I planted some pansies in window boxes and pots which lasted through the bleak mid-winter months and added some much appreciated colour to the London Vegetable Garden balcony. Now that we've entered September, I've spent some time gearing up the botanical side of the London Vegetable Garden for the coming months.

I managed to track down some cheap bedding plants which included mixed pansies and chrysanthemums (Regal Cheryl). As you can see from the picture below, they are in their infant stages at the moment, but hopefully once they've grown, they'll add a splendid range of colour to the London Vegetable Garden balcony.


These beautiful plants have a higher spread and height than pansies, so I have made these the focal point, planting in the centre and rear of the pots, with pansies dotted around in between and at the front. Hopefully, these will grow nicely together!


The balcony also has a wooden table on which I have moved the tall plants to the back, with trailing ivy at the front. This acts as a natural green 'curtain' to cover up my gardening tools, compost etc. which are located under the table! In front of this we have a vintage plant stand with pots growing in and then the chrysanthemum / pansy pots at the front. I'm hoping that when these plants flower, the whole effect will look like a staggered wall sloping down from the back to the front.


More to follow...

Autumn Crops in Pots...

To lovingly steal a phrase from one of the many people I follow on Twitter, we are now well and truly in the 'bbrrrr' months: Septembbrrrr, Octobbrrr, Novembbrrr, Decembbrrr!

With the weather shifting perceptibly cooler and the evenings drawing in, vegetable gardening changes dynamically. Gone are the long days full of light and warmth, replaced by gloom, gloom and grey – especially if you live in London and your 'garden' is a high-rise balcony!

Although my tomato plants are doggedly hanging in there, they're definitely wilting and becoming less productive – rather like Gordon Brown really. Despite this, the focus of the London Vegetable Garden has now officially turned to winter vegetable gardening. Along with the continual trays of salad leaves growing on my balcony windowsill (which remains very warm in the sunshine), I have three main batches of 'crops in pots'.

The first of these is a pot of spring onions, which (so I've been told on the London Gardeners' Network) are relatively easy to grow:


One of the key things I've learnt from the London Vegetable Garden project has been that when planting in pots, one needs to sow the seeds thinly, so that roots have enough space. I'm hoping that these thin, grass-like shoots will end up forming into tasty spring onions!

The next vegetable pot I have on the go is beetroot:


Again, thin planting has been employed but I fully expect that I will have to transplant these once they get a little bigger.

Finally, I'm having another stab at growing carrots. I planted my first batch of carrot seeds way back in April when I started the London Vegetable Garden. My initial enthusiasm got the better of me and it transpired that I had sown far too many seeds in too small a pot for anything of note to grow.


As you can see, I really have been frugal with my planting this time round, but I hope that the seven shoots I have will carry more success than the initial attempt!

As always, progress will be chronicled here at the London Vegetable Garden blog, as well as on the London Gardeners' Network, which now has well over 100 members!

Where are all the Girls?

My temperamental butternut squash plant has suddenly taken me back to my formative teenage years. Hours of preparation in the shower, hair gel ladled on (something no longer necessary), new clothes and plenty of cheap aftershave. Why am I regaling you with stories from my past? Because my butternut squash is turning out to be like the parties I went to as a teenager – full of guys without a girl in sight!

Back then I'd sit with mates and lament the lack of girls to chat up. Today I sit and lament the lack of female flowers on my squash plant, which is turning out to be a sausage-fest of the plant world. I've had four huge flowers now; all of which have been male flowers. Will I manage to get any vegetables from it? Not unless a lady turns up to the party...

A Flowering Butternut Squash!

The rise of the butternut squash plant here on the London Vegetable Garden balcony has been staggering! Now standing at around 4 feet tall, the plant produced its first flower yesterday morning, which was promptly joined by another come the evening:

Having talked to fellow gardeners on the London Vegetable Garden Twitter page, it transpires that squash flowers can be very different, with male and female varieties determining whether that flower will produce a squash or not.

As you can see from the pictures, the single stamen suggests that these are male flowers, although I'm no botanist, so please correct me if I'm wrong! Hopefully I'll have some female flowers joining these chaps, which will mean the start of a butternut squash!

Many gardeners have also told me that butternut squash plants are happy to grow along the ground, but due to the London Vegetable Garden's obvious space constraints, I'm training these up a cane. Hopefully, I'll have a squash lower down the plant which I can focus on looking after, as I'm still concerned that this pot is not big enough to bear one, let alone ten, squash plants!


However, I have put mulch on the top of the soil, am giving it plenty of water and adding a liquid vegetable plant feed once a week. It's certainly starting to look positive on the butternut squash front, but the trouble with one plant on a balcony is that if it goes wrong, that's your lot! Let's wait and see what happens...

(Do you have any good squash-growing advice? Are you growing a butternut squash and have some pictures you'd like to share with the London Vegetable Garden community? Visit the London Gardeners' Network!)

The Root of the Matter...

I'm not sure whether this thread bears any interest to followers of the London Vegetable Garden, but for the budding botanists amongst you, here is an update on the spider plant!

The other week, I took clippings from an overgrowing spider plant and while I potted the majority of these cuttings in soil, I left one in a glass of water to see whether it would grow. Well, it's been perfectly happy over the last two weeks and it's been interesting watching it grow some new roots, displayed here:

I plan to keep this plant in the water purely to see how long it keeps growing like this. Watch this space!

Bloomin' Marvellous...

Two urban gardeners. Two Cobra Lily bulbs. One London Lily-Off Championship 2009. You know the score – it's Grumblegarden's Charles verus myself. Here's the latest snap of my Cobra Lily, that looks set to flower despite being only six inches in height! Is the London Vegetable Garden set to win the world's first official 'Lily-Off'? Can Charles come back with anything more impressive than my botanical beauty? Stay tuned folks!

Tomatoes - The Journey Comes to an End...

It was only back in April that I decided to plant a few tomato seeds and blog about the process. Five months on and what started as an interesting project has developed into a full-grown passion, with an abundant crop of sweet tomatoes the fruit of my labours, in every sense of the phrase!

As you all know by now, the London Vegetable Garden is a big (well, little) experiment, that aims to show urban gardeners just how much is possible, even when challenged with a small space in the city. These tomatoes have lived quite happily out on the balcony for months – no greenhouse, cloche or trickery; just a grow bag, a weekly tomato feed, plenty of water and daily attention!

Looking back, I remember saying how hard I thought it would be to grow such a demanding plant, but caring for these tomatoes has been an absolute joy. As they crop starts to slow and trusses dry up, it's clear that my tomato supply is beginning to run out for the year, but the whole process has been incredibly enjoyable.

Several of you have written to me (both here and on the London Gardeners' Network) and have been kind enough to have shared your tomato-growing experiences. Tumbling tomatoes are a clear favourite amongst space restricted London gardeners, along with grow bags on balconies. From my experiments and the experiences you've shared with the London Vegetable Garden community, urban tomato growing is nothing less than a clear winner – gardening that can be enjoyed by any urban city dweller.

Spiders & Cobras...

Aside from balconies and vegetables, I also have a penchant for plants and flowers. Whilst I may not have the space to plan a fanciful garden full of spectacular bloom and wonder, my flat is dotted with pot plants and interesting flowers that offer a pleasant alternative to vegetable gardening.

When my girlfriend and I moved into the flat in April 2008, we purchased a spider plant (Chlorophytum comosum) that has lived quite happily in the bathroom ever since. For months and months the other half harassed me to re-plant it and sort it out, since it was taking up more and more space by the day!

Whilst I was setting about this task however, I thought it worth chronicling the plant's unique growth. As you can see from the picture below, the plant has branched off in a long row, with several discernible 'root lumps' ready for re-planting:


Having cut these apart, I proceeded to re-pot these in various different pots in the hope that we will soon be overrun with new spider plants. I happened to remember reading somewhere that some plants simply need water to survive – please feel free to correct me if wrong! As an experiment (that shall of course be chronicled here on the London Vegetable Garden), I have given one spider plant a new home in a glass of water:

At the time, I didn't have any hormonal root growth powder to hand, so I'm not sure if the 'roots' on these separate plants will take very well – watch this space...

Before I stop writing and start enjoying some of my delicious tomatoes for tea, a quick update on the (in)famous 'Cobra Lily Challenge 2009'. The full story of this gardening challenge can be viewed by clicking here, but regular readers will know that I challenged Grumblemouse of GrumbleGarden fame to a Cobra Lily grow-off; here is my progress so far:

Grumblemouse, it's over to you...

Super Salad!

I've said it before, I'll say it again and I'll keep on saying it – salad leaves are one of the easiest and most rewarding things for any urban gardener to grow! A large proportion of food waste comprises of bags of mushy brown salad leaves that have sat in the fridge and turned to mulch. When growing your own is this easy, those wasteful bags could soon become a thing of the past!
This is the third batch of salad leaves I've grown in this window box on the London Vegetable Garden this summer. Were I not experimenting with all sorts of crops in pots and vegetables, I could have dedicated the whole balcony to salad leaves and even in this small space, have been self-sufficient in terms of salad leaf needs.

In addition to how easy these plants are to grow, they also grow very quickly, making them ideal for people without much space. They also only really need soil, sunlight and watering, so even if you have no outside space whatsoever, an empty ice-cream tub on a windowsill will work just as well.

It's a fantastic feeling eating your own produce; and when it's as easy as lettuce, there's really no excuse for not giving it a go. Great taste, growing satisfaction and it will save you throwing away money each time you dispose of a brown salad bag from the supermarket. Why not give it a go?

For urban growing advice and to see how you could start growing your own salad leaves, come and visit the London Gardeners' Network today!

Flowers and Foliage...

The London Vegetable Garden is split firmly into two camps; vegetables and flowers! Whilst my enthusiasm for container vegetable growing threatens to overrun the poor balcony, my girlfriend ensures that we have a botanical balance in force!

Throughout the year we choose a variety of cheap bedding plants for window boxes that generally last anywhere up to three months. These hardy flowers would last longer in the ground, however in containers they quickly grow too big for their environment. Take a look at the before and after pictures – taken two months apart:


Another feature of the London Vegetable Garden's flower display is an array of plants in containers. My girlfriend's father very kindly sent down some new plants from his beautiful garden this weekend. As gardening author Bob Purnell states, one of the benefits of container gardening is your ability to move and re-arrange plants to create a stunning display – this is certainly a huge advantage when pottering about on such a small space.


The London Vegetable Garden project may be about the vegetables, but I'm certainly grateful for my girlfriend's insistence on a certain quota of flowers; it certainly makes the balcony an attractive and a colourful place to work on! The versatility of plants and flowers in pots in containers is incredible – and allows urban gardeners the chance to build some impressive displays.

Butternut Squash - a Whole New World!

Arguably the London Vegetable Garden's most thirsty plant, my butternut squash has been enjoying the recent muggy weather and continues to grow exponentially! There are many different things going on in the pot however, so I'm appealing to you, dear readers, for advice and pointers!

The shot below shows the plant in its pot on the London Vegetable Garden balcony:
As you can see, it looks very similar to a courgette plant at the moment – plenty of big leaves that threaten to take over the whole balcony! What is interesting however, is the recent appearance of these 'swirly feelers' – I don't know what else to call them:

As you can see, they're quite interesting – does anyone know what they are? Are they simply looking for a new cane / net to latch onto and grow up?

Finally, we have some bud-like things forming on the stems, as so:


Are these the beginnings of the squashes? As you can see, there's quite a lot going on in this pot – any advice would be most welcome!