Progress!

Friday was long and hot and I was off work. I spent literally all day on the balcony, from my first cup of tea to sweeping it down at dusk. It's the longest stint I've had for quite a while. Ever, even! It's rare to have a completely free day that coincides with decent weather, at least at this time of year.

People look at how small my balcony is and can't conceive how I manage to find so much to do out there! But it's deceptive. Pots are fairly high maintenance and dry out fast, and then there's my plant buying habits - newbies have to be potted up, and I end up rearranging loads of pots to find them the right placement... Weeding and pruning too, and trying to remember to feed things occasionally. Because I love to be out there, I do go looking for jobs to do sometimes, tiny trims, bits of sweeping. Turning pots a few degrees... Or just looking at it all living, breathing, growing. All the little miracles.

At the moment there is no time for such leisurely pursuits, there's too much to do! It seems like in a matter of weeks its all gone from an almost-graveyard to full of fresh life. One of the major jobs on Friday was repotting my jasmine. It was desperately in need of a move and some more legroom, and has now had both. I've moved it to the end wall where we have our table. I've decided to focus on making that end nice first so we have a green and flowering bit to sit in. I've struggled to make clematis happy against that wall for years - I had visions of a generous frothing tangle of it but the reality has been a few tragic straggling vines that succumbed to mould and didn't come within a mile of my imaginings. So to hell with them! If the trusty jasmine survived it's old spot then hopefully it will thrive now its more sheltered and secure. As you can see in the picture above (jasmine in pride of place) we also have an ugly satellite dish that I'm determined to camouflage as much as possible, hopefully with lots of fast growing jasmine fronds...

I've also moved the big rose into that corner, and fashioned a raiser out of an old palette to hold up a couple of other pots. One of the things I want to really work on this year is having varied levels, not just a bunch of sad little pots sitting on the floor.

I also went plant shopping. (Again!) I'll introduce them properly soon but here's a sneak preview:

That smorgasbord of loveliness includes some vegetables. Very excited about them! Looking forward to my first homegrown meal.