Pottery Barn Sale

FYI, Pottery Barn is having a pretty big sale on outdoor furniture and cushions.

July 31, 2008 | Filed Under Outdoor Decor | Leave a Comment

Making a Coleus Topiary

Coleus is a great group of plants. They have beautiful burgandy and green foliage and like living in the shade, which makes them great for many balcony gardens, or even for use indoors if you have no gardening space outdoors (or none left!). Recently, there have even been new hybrids that tolerate full-sun.

While flipping through a copy of the Crate and Barrel catalog I spotted a pair of great looking coleus standards. I don’t know why, but I’ve really been attracted to standards lately and have plans to make a mint standard with some of the seedlings I have been growing. Perhaps its because standards need pinching and pruning and I love garden projects that require fussing over plants. I like the challenge.

I found these instructions to make a coleus standard from Garden Gate Magazine, and it looks pretty easy.

You can start with any sized plant, just look for a straight central stem, called the “central leader.” Obviously, the smaller the plant, the longer it will take to grow into a standard, but at the same time, smaller plants are cheaper and its less painful when you make a mistake on a plant you only paid a few dollars for.
When the plant is 8-10 inches tall, insert a bamboo stake near the base of the central leader, being careful not to damage the roots. If necessary, pot the plant in a larger container at this time. Loosely tie the central leader to the bamboo stake in several locations to help keep the central leader growing straight. Use twine, “bring[ing] the twine around the back of the stake, crossing it in an “X” between the plant and the stake. Then tie it loosely around the coleus stem.”
Once the plant reaches approximately three feet tall, transfer it to a heavy, 12 inch container to help keep the plant from tipping over and give it enough root space. Don’t worry about shaping your plant or snipping off leaves that are growing directly on the central leader just yet. However, you do want to inspect your plant for branches that are growing near the bottom of your plant as you will want to cut those off before the become thick and woody.
When your coleus reaches the height you want it to be (coleus can grow anywhere from 2-5 feet tall depending on which variety of coleus you have) it’s time to start the serious pruning work. A general rule of thumb for standards is 2/3 stem to 1/3 head. So if your coleus is 3 feet tall, you’ll want 24 inches of exposed trunk at the bottom and 12 inches of bushy leaves at the top. When you start getting branches at the head, keep them pruned back to the second or third node from the stem. This encourages more side branches and will help your plant fill in. Keep the secondary stems pinched back to the second or third node as well.
Ta-da! You have a beautiful coleus standard.

Easy Ways to Attract Butterflies to Your Urban Garden

The other day I stopped dead in my tracks as a beautiful orange, black and white butterfly looped and fluttered among the plants along the side of my apartment building. It was so beautiful and peaceful to watch. After a quick internet search, I learned that the butterfly I most likely saw was the relatively common, Painted Lady Butterfly. Common or not, it got me thinking about attracting more of its kind.

Photo by Wildlifeshot

Of course, there are many good reasons to lure butterflies to your garden, least of which is that butterflies are beautiful. Butterflies, like bees, pollinate plants. Some plants rely almost exclusively on butterfly pollination. Butterflies are also an important food source for song birds.

Why not try this window box idea from Better Homes & Gardens? It features Salvia, a butterfly favorite.

A. Petunia ‘Supertunia Royal Velvet’ — 4
B. Salvia guarantica ‘Black and Blue’ — 2
C. Angelonia ‘Serena Lavender’ — 2
D. Nierembergia ‘Purple Robe’ — 6
E. Nemesia ‘Blue Lagoon’ — 6

If you plant a few windows in close proximity to one another, you’ll have a better chance of getting a butterfly or two to take notice. Be sure to check out BH&G’s other butterfly container recipes.

Another great way to attract the butterflies local to your area is to find out which native plants they like, and create a container or two featuring those plants. If you Google the words “butterfly,” “garden” and your state or region, you should be able to drum up a page from a local university that will give you authoritative advice on what to plant in your area.

Sources: University of Kentucky Entomology, Colorado State University Extension, The Butterfly Site, and The Garden Helper.

July 30, 2008 | Filed Under Attracting Birds Bees and Butterflies, Container Gardening | 2 Comments

Vegetable and Herb Companion Planting

It’s the time of year when you should start thinking about planting your fall vegetables. Actually, we might be a week behind for some vegetables, but if your neck of the woods is anything like mine, summer came late, so hopefully we’re okay.

A great way to get a good harvest is to “companion plant.” That is, plant two different types of vegetables in close proximity to one another to create a symbiotic cultural environment. Just as there are beneficial insects that eat destructive insects or improve pollination, there are beneficial combinations of plants that help fight pests or increase yields.

Image by lalalaa Dolce Vita

Sometimes companion plants are used to draw pests away from the “good crop.” Sometimes companion plants are used because one plant adds something to the soil that the other plant needs. For example, legumes add nitrogen to the soil which can then benefit neighboring plants. Other plants literally exude natural chemicals that deter pests. Still other, taller companion plants can be used to shade more fragile or shade loving plants. If this sort of thing really fascinates you, definitely click on the sources below, as there is more detailed information as to how and why companion planting works.

Needless to say, there are lots of good reasons to companion plant, and they all apply to container gardens and other small space vegetable gardens. While companion planting is good for the vegetables and herbs involved, it is worth noting, that companion planting often looks better than a single vegetable plunked down in the middle of a pot with a lot of exposed dirt surrounding the base.

Here are some suggestions for fall companion plantings:

Cabbage, Broccoli and Cauliflower - Plant with aromatic herbs (mint is a traditional companion plant for cabbage), beets or chard, but not dill, strawberries, pole beans, or tomatoes.
Lettuce - Plant with radishes or carrots
Spinach - Plant with fava beans
Globe Onions - Plant with beets, carrots, lettuce and cabbage but not with beans or English peas
Turnips - Plant with English peas but not with Irish potatoes
Beets - Plant with lettuce, kohlrabi, onions, garlic, mint, cabbage, broccoli, and cauliflower but not with beans
Carrots - Plant with onions, chives, lettuce, leeks, shallots, rosemary, sage, and beans but not with dill, parsnip, tomatoes and radish
Leeks - Plant with carrots but not with beans or peas

NOTE: Sometimes one plant can help another to its own detriment, which explains why tomatoes should be planted with carrots if the tomato is the primary plant, but carrots should not be planted with tomatoes if the carrots are the primary plant (carrots help tomatoes but will have stunted growth because of it).

Do you have a time-tested vegetable or herb combination that works? I’d love to hear about it! Check out Mary’s companion vegetable list and see how it compares to your experience.

Sources: National Sustainable Agriculture Information Service, Wikipedia and Ed Hume Seeds

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July 29, 2008 | Filed Under Fall Gardening, Fruits & Vegetables, Herbs | 10 Comments

Tiny Bit of Blog Maintenance

I’ve moved my RSS feed to Feedburner. If you were subscribing under the old feed, you can switch by subscribing to http://feeds.feedburner.com/lifeonthebalcony or by clicking on one of the chiclets in the far right sidebar.

Thanks,

The Management

July 29, 2008 | Filed Under General | Leave a Comment

My Grandma’s Cactus

In my post last week about my Grandma I mentioned this weird cactus that she’s had for decades. When she relandscaped her yard, she put it in the garage and forgot about it, only to find in three months later, still alive! I was over at my grandparents’ house today and I snapped a photo. Does anyone know what kind of cactus it is?

$Grandma\'s Cactus$

July 28, 2008 | Filed Under Succulents and Cacti | 6 Comments

Deck Tiles for Balcony Dwellers

Check out these SnapDeck deck tiles featured on Apartment Therapy LA. They’re perfect for apartment dwellers who would like to upgrade their outdoor flooring without seriously annoying (or worse!) their landlord. The deck tiles literally, “snap and click into place over your existing surface.”

July 28, 2008 | Filed Under Outdoor Decor | Leave a Comment

How to Help Bees Do Thier Work When It’s Hot Outside

Some areas of California (where I live) have been having record breaking summer heat this year, which is only making the honey bee problem worse. My local extension office has an article explaining how honey bees are stressed by temperatures over 100 degrees. Apparently when the temps get too high, the worker bees stop foraging for pollen and start trying to find water to bring back to the hive.

Photo by autan

Those of us living in urban spaces have a responsibility (I think) to help support the bee population. Urban sprawl, pollution, chemical pesticides, and the wide-scale introduction of pretty but pollen-free exotic plants are all bad news for bees.

One thing we can do during the height of summer is to have a water source–such as a bird bath–readily available. You can also check out this post I wrote with more tips to attract and support bees.

Have you had success attracting bees to your garden? What did you do that works?

July 28, 2008 | Filed Under Attracting Birds Bees and Butterflies | 3 Comments

Garden Clippings

Here are some news articles and blog posts that I enjoyed reading this week:

New York Times: In Beijing’s Ancient Alleys, Modern Comforts (definitely check out the photos)
Chicago Tribune: A Perfect Portch
Muddy Boot Dreams: A Garden Hint You Might Never Have Heard Of
Homefront: Tomatoes Love Epsom Salt
Concrete and Calendula: Beet Harvest (there’s a cute kitty photo involved)
The Balcony Garden: Clean Shaven Caterpillar?

July 27, 2008 | Filed Under Good Reading | 2 Comments

Flickr Flower Photos

Another batch of beautiful flowers found on Flickr. They’re all basil flowers, which you really shouldn’t allow, because the plant will spend too much energy producing the flowers and the flavor of the leaves will suffer for it. But they are pretty: