Category Archives: Balcony

I love Sweet Peas

“If you can’t be with the one you love, love the one you’re with”.

Generally, I am good at this. I love the things that I am good at growing. I love the way they surprise me and flourish. Sweet peas are an exception. I am not very good at growing them but I still love them. I am not romantic about flowers but I am about sweet peas.

  • Sweet peas on the balcony


I know what the problem is – I grow them in pots and they get mildew. I need to grow mildew resistant ones, but I fall in love with ones that aren’t. I should grow them straight in the soil, but I have so many slugs and snails, they never make it. And every year, I know I can’t do it properly but I do it anyway!

Last year, along with the cerinthe, I bought some from Sarah Raven (Lord Nelson, Matacuna and one other) and grew them in pots on my balcony they were so beautiful. They all died in the heatwave in London, even though someone was watering them. But I harvested seed and I have some in my greenhouse. Let’s see…

I can’t grow vegetables

I can for foliage and flowers but not produce. It doesn’t fit with prime directives (stuff that looks nice all year round/ stuff it doesn’t matter if the kids trash); I never end up with a “bumper crop” and at the time that eg: tomatoes are super cheap in the shops, I end up with 3-4 leathery, watery tomatoes no-one wants to eat.

Growing vegetables is hard work. Farmers are skilled and knowledgeable!

  • Peas, and beans
  • Trombocino
  • beans on the trellis
    Beans later

My biggest success is pea sprouts from Vertical Veg (this is an inspiring site). And we grew a sample and sold peas in packets at the Summer Fair, which the kids love.

I grow beans every year because I like the way they look but we rarely eat them as usually only about three of them are ripe at time. These last 2 years, I have grown them on the balcony up a clothes rack.

And I grew trombocino which looked AWESOME but didn’t really make it as a dinner. In 2021 I am going to try to grow herbs and leave it at that.

Greenhouse

This winter I bought a mini green house. I got a Grozone and it is fab.

It’s light but sturdy and very well made. It’s on the roof terrace outside our bedroom. When it rains in the night I can hear the water hitting it and it’s like being dry in a tent when it’s raining outside, only nicer.

My plan is to move it down to the garden for the Spring – or maybe even take it down all together until the autumn.

Here it is on January 5th 2021

interior of mini greenhouse
Hope of years to come…