Spring is in the air! All the plants are getting along like their life depends on it – which is going to be a huge surprise for the plants that I plan on eating. I’m hoping that this year, the balcony will make even more food than it has at any point in the past.
If you’ve got a garden of your own, don’t hesitate to show it off! Join in on the Six on Saturday posts by checking out where it all started. If you’ve got a Six on Saturday post (or you just love talking about your garden), go ahead and leave a comment below.
1
The Ginkgo Biloba is starting to wake up! I’ve always considered this wakeup to be the official start of Spring, so I’m glad I put my seedlings outdoors at the right time. When this little tree goes into hibernation each fall, I get very concerned – Will I water it enough? Too much? Will I give it root rot? Should I have transplanted it? So far it’s been doing a wonderful job staying alive, so I only have this sort of anxiety for 4 or 5 months out of the year.
2
The Winter Squash (which I think is just a fancily-named butternut squash) has been moved out into its long term home. I’m hoping it gets along with the sunflower! Worst case, if they start to fight, the sunflower will get priority. I don’t want to tell the plants this directly but I think they understand that the sunflower is quickly becoming one of my favorites.
3
The Billy Balls continue to grow! They still aren’t adding new leaves, but the existing leaves are getting bigger and bigger by the day. They have fine hairs all over them, and the longest of them are starting to flop over a bit (something I’m hoping isn’t a bad sign). I’m not entirely sure what the proper care is for these flowers, but all five seedlings are still alive. If I can figure out all the best practices by the time they start flowering, I should be able to keep these perennials going to years to come. I’m hoping for tons of bright yellow sunny flower balls!
4
As it turns out, I can’t eat garden cress fast enough. Three of the stalks are already flowering, and another two are showing signs of starting within the next few days. I’ve tried to eat as many of the plants as I could when it made sense to add them to a dish… but they’re unstoppable. My only hope is that they seed the ground directly beneath themselves, and don’t spread their seeds on the wind to the other pots on the balcony. I may have to start bundling this up and selling it at a Farmer’s Market at the rate this is going!
5
I mixed some wildflower seeds in with some soil and spread it over some other soil. These seeds are years old at this point, so I wasn’t confident any would sprout. Now it’s seeming like I might have put a little too much in the dirt – there’s new seedlings every day! I’m not sure which species of flowers will be sprouting out, but I can’t wait to entice more hummingbirds to my garden with plenty of flowers. I’ll even invite the bees too, if they want to join!
6
The Polka Dot Plants have been non-stop flowering for weeks now. I’m not sure if any of the flowers (which are supposed to be self-fertilizing) have been dropping any seeds, but that doesn’t seem to be slowing them down. I’ve taken to pruning the stems a little more deeply than I had been in past weeks, but that isn’t stopping this from turning into a bright bundle of white flowers (for the white-speckled leaves) and purple flowers (for the purple-speckled leaves). The plant as a whole is having a great time enjoying the window light, and probably needs to move up to an even larger pot. It’s only been here a couple of months, but it won’t stop growing as fast as a plant can.
Thanks for stopping by! I hope you had a pleasant time checking out the plants. If you’re in the mood for more nature, please stay in touch!
Mindful Foliage 
The Polka Dot Plants look great, nice to have something that grows really well and looks good too!
The wildflowers should be fun, working out what all the different seedlings are going to be.
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