Garden Gets
Saturday, May 7th, 2011 | 38 Comments 
Paid a visit to the nursery this morning to pick up some plants for my balcony garden. 
I didn’t really do any gardening last summer. 
I think that was a mistake. 
Gardening is something I’ve done every summer since I was a kid and it’s good for my peace of mind! The year before I did the edamame and herbs, etc. and it was wildly successful and took up most my balcony space! Very forest-like in the end. 
But I wanted to keep it easy this year 
with plants I know thrive. I get really weird sunlight ratios haahaa~ 
Not full sun but more than partial shade. 
I wish I got full direct sunlight so I could do a ton of blooming flowers. 
But whatever. 
I’m doing a tomato + herb garden mostly!! I’ve grown them before & they do great in my location.
What I’m growing:
- Cherry Tomatoes “Sugary”
- Rosemary “Santa Barbara”
- Garlic Chives
- Lime Thyme
- German Chamomile
- Portulaca “Sundial Tangerine” shade
- Clover “Charmed Velvet”
- White Clover “Dark Dancer”
- Flying Colors “Red” shade
I grew clover a few years ago too and it thrives like the weed it is! 
It’s super hardy and always so beautiful. This species produces a lot of lucky 4-leaf steams!
The tomatoes will be tiny and useful in salads or on sandwiches. 
I don’t like tomatoes too much but Mike does and it thrived last time I grew it on my balcony. I, however, LOVE herb plants like thyme and chives which I use constantly! 
I got the chamomile because it produces little daisy-like blooms. Wonder if I can dry it for tea? I’m going to research that a bit. The flowers I got were the portulaca and this new plant called “Flying Colors!” Never grew the Flying Colors nor even heard of it. 
But it’s “award winning” 
and labeled as liking sun/partial shade so here’s hoping! The blooms are tiny and red. Very pretty.
Portulaca you can’t screw up. Like seriously… they’ll reseed themselves too hahaha~
OK so garden-time has begun!! 
Jenny posted at 8:08 pm ; Saturday
TAGS: garden
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Jenny
According to what I’ve heard from my aunt, you’re supposed to harvest the chamomile during their peak time and then either air, sun, or oven dry them. For air drying, place them on a cookie sheet, cover them with a paper towel and keep them in a well ventilated room (so they don’t get moldy) for around a week. I’m not too sure about how to oven dry them, but if you want to sun dry them, on a sunny day it’ll take about 5-6 hours using window screens to dry. Try not to crush them, because they can loose flavor that way. Then you can keep the dried chamomile for about 6 months in a cool, dry place.
Not too in-depth directions, but I hope that somewhat helps!
Another tip on drying, if you dont mind, you can take them in stalks, tie with a rubber band and hang them upside down
Ah this is how I used to dry flowers! Like strawflowers!
Thanks, I used to dry flowers, but herbs I’m used to using fresh cut so this will be something fun to try.
Ah, lovely! I’ve been growing a balcony garden for the past 3 years. I
Ah, lovely! I’ve been growing a balcony garden for the past 3 years. I love it. I always grow everything from seeds, and I get so impatient waiting for everything to grow! Everyone else has these pretty flowers from the nursery. I think I’m going to purchase a couple hanging plants and tomato plants though, just so I can have some flowers already!
I really want a clover plant now.
I actually usually do seeds too!!!! But storms are so bad this year they would have wrecked them and I don’t have any place to start them indoors :(.
Wah that’s so awesome! I’m getting an apartment that’s got a porch, so I hope that I will get enough sunlight to grow things! I’ve got so many plans for cooking :3
Oh my! I started watching Doctor Who! It’s SO ADDICTING! I’ve started with Season One, Christopher Eccleston Doctor. I love it so much~
A GIRL AFTER MY OWN HEART!! You rock for starting at Nine!! Nine has a special place in my heart. I like him + Rose better than Ten + Rose
Wow~ I absolutely love gardening! That is, whenever my allergies don’t bother me…
Roses, Azaleas, Daylilies~ Just wonderful!
I was actually at a nursery today too! I’m planning on planting a flower garden soon! Got some that are really pretty…
Our tomato/veggie garden failed last year… Hoping the gardening works!! Any tips?
Best of luck to you Jenny!
Roses, so beautiful! My balcony doesn’t get enough sunlight for them but I would if I could!
Tomato & other veggies can be picky about the soil and you can add in some store bought solutions to make them grow more hardy. I’m not too skilled with growing vegetables since I’ve only done it a handful of times in my gardening life ;D (tomato, peppers and herbs)
Ah, it’ll be great to eventually have a real garden. My BF used to have one at his parent’s house, so that should be a fun thing to work on together, and we can grow some of our own food.
Right now all we have (in an apartment, so all we have to work with really is concrete slab) is a little pot of sunflowers. I’m not sure how well that will do…
Best of luck with your plants!
Haha I’ve grown sunflowers in tight spots before, hopefully you’ll get some result!! In college I used to have nothing more than a concrete windowsill but managed to grow a few shades plants then. Any little thing to brighten up the day!
I love gardening! I love plants, specially flowers!
I think at home must be at least a small yard is something I’ve always liked! I love flowers and for some time I have started to like bonsai, small trees, my uncle and I know how to make a small gift I love it
I would love to see pictures of your little garden!
I can’t wait for the day I move to a big house with a big yard (I’m in a townhouse right now =Y) I want to plant in the ground again & not just big ceramic pots! Haahaa!~
Aw this makes me miss gardening with my mother when I was a kid! Please post pictures of your plants
your balcony garden sounds wonderful.
Of course I will ;3 Everything’s so tiny right now it’s not much to look at
Wow the purple clovers are beautiful! Hmmmm…should I start to do some gardening too??? I have a balcony but it’s empty except for the air-conditioner compressor…
Only if you want to
I do it because it makes me enjoy sitting out there during summer months & also looks lovely through the window.
Oooo, your little garden sounds lovely. I wanted to start an herb garden a while ago, but I don’t think I’m ready yet haha. Each herb can have such different needs and the Canadian winters just give me a headache (I wanted an herb garden that I could bring indoors during the winter and plant outside during the summer O.o). I had a basil plant once, and that was lovely but then it was short lived because winter came so quickly =(
(your pics are lovely btw ^-^)
My mom loves gardening. We grow a lot of Chinese edamame and wintermelons. I personally don’t like gardening as much because it attracts so many bugs and flies! But I do love organic food though, lol.
Yes you go girl! And you can totally make tea from german chamomile! Just dry the flowers!
We are stocking up on basil this year because my dad loves making basil mashed potatoes! Oh! And if you’d like some help with pests an insects — soapy water for the crawlers that eat your plants and other pests, if you mix in marigolds with your garden, that should help too! 
Good luck!!
Hi ;’
wow! you’re growing lots of plants
it’ll definitely be great during june and july
there’s very few people who does gardening now, it’s healthy and good tho ;’
please update the growth of your cherry tomatoes and herbs garden with us *^*! i recently became obsessed with gardening this year and i can’t wait to start soon! but i’m going to start out with flowers first because i’m not pro enough to do fruits/veggies/herbs D: haha
Thanks for the comment (and the reminder that I never blog). Just finally got around to responding to it.
I could rant forever about ATT/T-Mobile but I’m hoping for the best. I love GSM too much for things to get screwed up.
(And a side note, I still read all the time, just barely have the time to comment
)
You are so lucky you can grow plants during summer. The summers here in San Diego is brutal on plants, in fact, our much beloved cilantro and thyme plants got badly burned from a recent heatwave =(
Best of luck with your gardening, can’t wait to see what you’ve grown!
I’m so jealous! :( I wish that I had the space to do up a little vegetable garden, I used to have a strawberry plant when I was little and I used to always pick and eat them - homegrown veggies and fruits are always the best! \(^o^)/
Wow! It is good that you work with the nature. Nowadays nobody is gardening anymore :(
You really inspire me to grow stuff myself.
Oh yea?! Are you thinking of doing a little gardening this year too?
So jealous!!! I grew up in the middle of nowhere-rural USA and my dad had a huge veggie garden while my mom had flowers allllll over the place. Now I can hardly keep a plant alive in my tiny Japanese apartment. And I don’t have a real balcony :( I’d so grow something if I had one! I hope you have a wonderful growing season and that your garden does well
cuuuute! gardening is so relaxing and such a beautiful hobby! In a NY building you cant really grow anything except whatever fits on your window? lol so maybe I will try growing some cilantro :3 you should do a little recipe post using your home-grown herbs!
Such a cute blog you have here! It’s so full of colour and stuff. Really sweet. Goodluck with the garden! It brings so much peace to be working in nature and with your hands
http://iambackstage.blogspot.com
The clover is so pretty~ good luck with your garden this year, Jenny! :3
these plants are pretty! especially the clover! i like the change from green to purple :3
i hope your garden thrives!
Nice choices
We’re growing tomatoes and peppers mostly this year. But we do have some onions growing too. Our greenhouse went over in the wind last weekend so we lost a big chunk of our crops :/
Aww how nice! I’m very much getting into gardening this summer too. I hope you’ll let us know how it goes and keep sharing pictures with us!
b