Photo from Sunset Magazine

The other day, as I was pulling in to my bank’s parking lot, I noticed an apartment near by that had enclosed their balcony in curtains. From what I could tell, there was an amazing, Moroccan-inspired hangout inside. I wish there was a way for me to figure out which unit had that balcony so I could introduce myself and invite myself over for peppermint tea inside their cabana!

It also got me wondering, had they gotten then idea from this Sunset Magazine article (they used similar plants and furniture)? If they did, how ingenius of them to convert Sunset’s idea into something for a balcony!

The apartment version doesn’t require any post-hole digging or crazy amounts of carpentry. From what I could tell, they were using tension rods between the pillars that were in each corner of their balcony. They hung the curtains from the tension rods, and then outfitted their balcony with easy-to-care-for pots of ornamental grasses. Oh, and don’t forget the low-slung, wooden furniture with padded cushions…

This week there were some really good garden blog posts to share, and some kind of funny gardening news. I particularly liked Sue’s post about comparing seedlings growing in potting soil from last year versus ones that had fresh potting mix. There’s also a corny gardening joke, and a bit about the nasturtium seed scarification project.

Great Garden Blog Reading

• Sue has a really interesting post about what happens when you break some gardening rules.
• Check out Jenny’s idea for making your own herbed butter with the herbs you’re growing in your garden.
• Adriana also tried out DoLeaf. Check out what she ordered and her thoughts on the online plant shop.
• Mike is expanding his balcony gardening repertoire to include flowers. I like his choices!

The Mouse & Trowel Awards

If you haven’t already nominated your favorite gardening blogs for a Mouse & Trowel award, today is the last day!

Nasturtium Seed Scarification Project

If you participated in our little nasturtium seed scarification study, let us know your results! All of my seeds sprouted except for the ones that I didn’t do anything to. Though in all fairness, after awhile I got bored waiting for them to germinate and may have forgotten to keep the soil moist.

Bad Gardening Joke

Why do potatoes make good detectives? Because they keep their eyes peeled.

And in Other News…

• It’s apparently more dangerous to garden in the U.K. than it is to ski. Who knew?
• The Philadelphia Inquirer says you can grow $1000 worth of vegetables for $100.

At the San Francisco Garden Show, the best of show display garden featured oversized metal animal sculptures meandering through “prairies” of tall, wispy grass. It was quite stunning in its simplicity. And then the other day I saw this at a local gardening accessories shop…

What do you think? I wonder what the HOA would say if I put this out on my balcony…

Don’t forget to submit your whimsical container gardening blog posts to the April blog carnival!

Everyday at around 3 in the afternoon I wish I could crawl under my desk and take a nap. Maybe I lived in a Latin country in a previous life, because siestas sound fantastic to me! It may sound a bit crazy to think about napping out on your balcony or patio now–though Southern California has been having intermittent warm weather–in a few months you’ll be thanking me for putting this idea into your head.

Sunset Magazine recently published a list of ways to nap outdoors, here are my favorites:

1. Unroll a Futon
2. Soften a Bench
3. Tropical Glam Lounge Chair

I wonder what the HOA at my condo community would say about sleeping on balconies….

Have you ever enjoyed a nap on your balcony or patio?

Photo by Jenny Peterson

The condo association in charge of our new place has all sorts of rules, most of which I see my neighbors breaking left and right. For example, you’re not supposed to hang any planters on the railings of the balcony, but I have seen at least two people doing just that. And one of the balconies violating the rules has dead plants in the planter, so it doesn’t even look very nice. All of this talk of rules got me thinking about the ettiquette of Christmas lights. I’m Jewish and I’ve never put up Christmas lights, but I was wondering, when should I start complaining to the condo association about my neighbors?

Just kidding. I hate HOA’s and won’t be complaining. I’d rather have neighbors doing tacky things than feel like I live in a police state. To help get you in the holiday mood, check out these beautifully decorated balconies that people submitted to the Life on the Balcony Flickr group:

Photo by Monica Milla

This photo is of Robert Frost’s house in Michigan. It looks like Santa left his sleigh on the balcony. Love the swags of greenery. Classic and classy.

Photo by alles-schlumpf

I loved the creativity behind this photo, titled ‘I Shot Santa Clause.’ The balcony owners placed all the lights and Santa Clauses climbing up the ladders, but the photographer added the black shooting guide (not sure what that is called exactly?).

Photo by Thomas Hawk

Balconies on one of San Francisco’s infamously hilly streets.

And these two photos are of my neighbor’s balconies, which are really pretty nice and tasteful, all things considered:

I’m pleased to publish Life on the Balcony’s second guest post, written by Janet Luke. Janet is a Landscape Architect who has a Masters degree, with Honors, in Environmental and Resource Planning. She has a passion for sustainable design, edible landscaping and permaculture. Her website–Green Urban Living–is inspiring many urbanites to grow their own food, keep livestock and live a more sustainable lifestyle, whilst having fun doing it!.

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Growing birdhouse gourds and then making a birdhouse is a great outdoor project to do with the kids. They grow during summer, cure in Autumn and are ready to make into birdhouses in winter. They provide an inside activity for kids when it is too wet and cold outside. Gourds come from the same family as pumpkins and squashes and you can buy seeds at most garden centres. [Fern: Botanical Interests carries birdhouse gourd seeds as well]

Planting the Seeds

These plants are easy to grow. Remember all those pumpkin seedlings that germinate in your worm farm or compost, well gourds, being closely related, are just as easy. Plant three seeds in a large pot. As the plants grow train them along a balcony railing or let them sprawl along the ground. If they are growing along a railing you will need to support the developing fruit in some sort of sling. Try a small hammock or granny’s F cup bras!!! Birdhouse gourds like well-drained, enriched soil. You can get clever and try growing strange shaped gourds. As the gourd is growing place it in a small wooden box, as the gourd grows it will take on the internal shape of the container!

Harvesting the Gourds

Gourds are ready to be harvested when the stalk becomes dry. Cut each gourd with at least 5cm of stalk attached. Handle carefully as they bruise easily at this stage. Wipe off any moisture and keep them in a cool and airy place to dry for around 3 months. Make sure the gourds are not touching each other to allow for plenty of air circulation. If mold appears just wipe it off with a damp cloth soaked in bleach. If any of the gourds start to rot – toss into the compost pile or worm farm.

Make a Birdhouse

During the curing process, the gourds change colour and each takes on it’s own particular hue of brown. Bottles that are fully cured, will be light-weight, rattle when shaken and hard. I found that the little ones cured quickly, large one can take up to six months.

Rub gourds with a medium grade sandpaper. Wear a dust mask as any mold may be toxic. Using a small hole-saw drill a 3-5cm hole in the middle of the gourd to provide a front door for the bird. Under this entry hole drill a small hole to fit a piece of branch or bamboo as a perch. I thread the perch right through the gourd and out a small exit hole to make the perch really stable. Sometimes you need a spot of glue to anchor it. Experiment with entrance hole sizes for birds found in your community. From experience it seems best to go too small than too large.

A few small holes will need to be drilled on the under side of the gourd for drainage as well as two holes on either side at the very top of the neck. Those last two holes will be for threading a wire through so that you can hang the birdhouse outside. Remove all seeds and pulp from inside the gourd. If you have trouble reaching some, put some small stones or gravel inside and shake to release seeds and pulp. You can also varnish the outside of the gourds before you hang them to make them last longer. Alternatively paint them to match your house colours.

Be sure to place your birdhouse high in trees, protected from the weather and away from climbing cats!

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Don’t forget about the container gardening seeds collection contest!

Nell of Secrets of a Seed Scatterer came up with a great idea that I think could be easily applied to container gardening. Nell got the idea to use Pantone’s color forecast for 2010 to pick color combinations in the garden. Brilliant!

Acording to Pantone, the three top colors for Spring 2010 are aurora yellow, tomato puree, and eucalyptus green. Here are descriptions of the top ten:

• Turquiose is “calm ocean waters and tranquil beach vacations in cool, vibrant, tropical” tones.
• Tomato puree is a “classic red that can be paired with turquoise, another Pantone hot hue, for a retro look.”
• Coral fusion is “warm,” “provacative,” and “inviting.”
• Violent “lends a romantic air to the warm-weather palette.”
• Tuscany is “a warm beige hue, provides the perfect backdrop and works well as a solid base color.”
• Eucalyptus is described simply as “is cool and classic.”
• Dried herb is “is the ultimate green neutral.”
• Pink Champagne is a “delicate, wispy tint…the season’s newest neutral.”
• Amparo blue has “more warmth than the typical spring navy…[and] is extremely appealing because of its brighter, more energetic attitude.”
• Aurora is “a yellow tinted with green that gives off a burst of energy.”

Obviously all these colors can’t be found directly in flowers and foliage. I doubt you’ll be able to find a plant with turquoise or amparo blue leaves or flowers. But that doesn’t mean you have to exclude them from your balcony garden plans. Those colors could be used on the containers themselves, or on any furniture or pillows you have out there. For example, check out this outdoor fabric:

Or this one:

But the real fun, at least for me, is imagining combinations of plants. The color combination that really jumps out at me when I look at the Pantone colors is tomato puree and fusion coral. Maybe with a little pink champagne.

Dark, medium, and light colors of the same or similar shade can look pretty traditional, if that’s your thing. Or, if you want to kick things up a notch, mix in some of that turquoise in your patio furniture, or maybe one particularly gorgeous glazed pot.

What colors do you think will a lot of in next years garden?

I hate Halloween. There. I said it. If there was a bad guy for Halloween–a grinch of some sort–I’d be it. The constantly ringing doorbell (even with my porch light off!) drives me nuts and scares my cats. And then when I open the door, half the time I see teenagers too old to be trick-or-treating, begging for candy. Dude. If you want candy, get a job and buy some!

Photo by Melissa Maples

Now that I got that rant off my chest, I think I can admit that I am one of the few people in the Halloween-celebrating-world that doesn’t like the holiday. So I thought I would collect some of the decorating ideas that even I can admit are pretty neat:

• Want to do something different with your pumpkin this year? Check out this really neat stencil and technique from Sunset. It will make your pumpkin look more like a wood carving than a jack-o-lantern. Sunset has tons of extraordinary pumpkin carving ideas. The crazy cat lady in me really loves the black cat o’lantern.
• If you have a lot of empty pots on your balcony right now, why not fill them with some moss and these “pumpkin toadstools” from Martha Stewart? These tin can robot jack-o-lanterns are another a cool idea from the homemaking diva.
• A quick and easy way to add some instant autumn charm to your balcony would be to pop some mums or other cool-season flower into a hollowed out pumpkin. A black flowering plant would look great!
• These maple leaf string lights would look pretty draped over your balcony railing. Or maybe you could create a wreath out of them.

How are you decorating for Halloween?

Apartment/condo living means living thisclose to your neighbor. It often means hearing all sorts of things from your neighbor’s unit that you’d rather not hear. And often times, living in a high density area means listening to all sorts of other noises from streets, trains, planes, jack hammers, and on and on. In addition to your neighbor’s noises, you probably would like to have a conversation with the windows open or out on your balcony, and it would be nice if your neighbors didn’t hear every detail.

Especially outside, there are things you can do to reduce the noise. Or at least make it more bearable. Tobin Cooley, the founder of Listen Acoustics suggests using two or three white noise sources at a low volume level “to create a neutral sound environment.” Things like water fountains, wind chimes, radios, or even a white noise machine can be used to neutralize unappealing noises.

With the can’t-beat-em-join-em philosophy of noise reduction in mind, I thought these wind chimes from Ten Thousand Villages would look great on a balcony or patio. And you have the added benefit of supporting a fair trade organization that supports artisans in the developing world.

• Tranquility Wind Chime
• Capiz Circle Wind Chime
• Bamboo and Ceramic Wind Chime

Do you have any special noise reduction tips?

If the title of this post describes how you feel right now, take a deep breath and sit down for a second. Hopefully you’ve got today off, but even if you don’t, the collection of 4th of July decorating ideas below are easy enough to accomplish before your party starts.

• I’m tempted to make these lawn stars in the grass out front of my apartment building. Think my landlord will mind? Pretty much everyone will already have the supplies needed on hand, and who doesn’t want stars all over their grass?!
• The Seattle Times has not 1, but 6 (!), decorating ideas for the Fourth that lean towards the “modern-spin on kitschy classics” look.
• This seems like a super-easy, super-quick way to add some patriotic cheer to otherwise boring chairs.
• Download this pinwheel pattern, print it out, follow the instructions, and repeat. Soon you’ll have plenty of wind-powered decorations for even the craft-challenged person’s balcony.
• Pop this Stars and Stripes Mandevilla into a pot with some blue lobelia and white petunias and you’ve got a pretty festive container to greet your guests at the front door.

Okay, jump up and get going!

If you’re one of those people that always has a list of to-do’s that you’ve ticked off in an organized fashion over the past week or so, then please leave your Martha Stewart-esque tips in the comments.

p.s. If decorating sounds like too much of a pain, you can come hang out on the Queen Mary in Long Beach with me. The fireworks show starts at 9pm.