Some of the East Bunch tomatoes - these are the Golden Girls and if you look closely you can see a new pole bean just breaking the surface and the smaller leafs are a new crop of mesclun mix.

Some very healthy looking Romas in the East Bunch. Looking like a thick forest of sorts.


Here is a group shot of the East Bunch looking westward down the length of the patio. The Nicotiana in the East Bunch are the bigger of the two groups, looks like they love their home.

East Bunch Golden Girls - looking a little bit spindly compared to the Window Box Romas - but I think that is to be expected. Still coming along nicely.

Ah the mighty mesclun mix - now sitting in the shady end of the balcony. This wonderful mix of lettuce leaves has supplied the Garden Master and D-Star with at lease 3 sallads each (6 in total) so far. We hope to keep our wonderfully symbiotic relationship going throughout the summer.

OK so its time for another update on the patio planters! We've had a week and a half of spectacular weather. Today's high temperature according to my National Geographic atomic thermometer was 34.1 C!! Lets have a look at how the plants are doing. Above are the West Bunch Roma tomatoes. I am happy to announce that in one day alone the stems of the plants gained significant girth. I think it might be because I watered from the bottom this morning at 7:00 AM so the plant enjoyed a sustained supply of moisture. I think I'll keep it up.

The peppers are going slow but finally getting substantially larger than they've been in the last 2 weeks. I think a growth spurt is underway. I have noticed that something is eating nice uniform round hoes on the leaves in the last 2 days.


In this pulled-back shot you can see the entire West Bunch including some very happy Nicotiana (lower left), peppers and oregano (lower right) and further back are the toatoes and the mesclun mix lettuce. I moved the lettuce today to this location because its shadier and cooler. The lettuce has not been happy with the intense heat and sun.

Above are the West Bunch Golden Girls and a new Blue Lake Stringless Pole Bean. I only have one pole bean left from the original crop so a new round was planted last week. Only took 3 days to germinate!

Here is a close up of the West Bunch Roma that displays the strongest stems! Look at the trunk on her.

Growing

Our little patio faces south and has an excellent view of the lane and our neighbours' yards. The quality of the sun from this angle is great, we get sun from about 8AM till 8PM, making the patio a fantastic place for sun loving plants like tomatoes and peppers.


Here is the current state of the Hungarian wax peppers. The first pot below is in the East Bunch and the other is in the West Bunch. Both seem to be doing well so far.


Here is an update on the Golden Girls hanging out in the East Bunch. Looking good ladies!
The mesclun mix is doing great! I thought they might be vulnerable to sun burn, so I have kept them down below the railing to act as a screen, much like has been done for the strawberries. The mescun LOVES the patio, we've had several salads from this box already.

Hope you enjoyed seeing how our garden has been growing,
Garden Master

A Week of Progress...mostly

There have been some disappointments though, namely the strawberries, they look like they can't handle the sun and have become sun burned. Its not a watering problem because they've never really been allowed to dry out.


A week in and there is visible progress in the garden! The nicotiana in the East Bunch really took off this week!
I thought I would post a few bigger picture shots of the patio garden, below is the East Patio:
Below is the West Patio:

Planted Today!

Today I planted about 8-10 more of the Blue Lake Stringless pole beans in a variety of the pots to see if I can catch up and recover from the devastating loss of 10 of the 12 planted earlier in the year. I'll keep you posted on their progress and post photos of any hatching.

Close Ups!

The Just Leafy! garden is ready for its close up now that you have gotten to know the patio a bit.

Here is the East Bunch.
Front row, at left, you will find a Lavender provided by my Mom, also in this pot is one of the Hungarian Hot Wax peppers from Vesey's Seeds, grow from seed planted April 4, 2009. An entire pot of the hot wax peppers is to the immediate right of the lavender.

Second row, left pot, is a cluster of Window Box Roma tomatoes also from Vesey's Seeds, sown from seed on March 31, 2009. Right hand pot (black) is a bushy daisy from my Mom.

Third and Fourth row: Golden Girl tomato from Vesey's also sown from seed on March 31 and April 4, 2009.

Here is the West Bunch, the furthest pot back is full of Window Box Roma's.
Middle row at left is an oregeno from my Mom's garden. At right in the middle row is a quartet of Golden Girls. In the foreground at left are some Nicotianas and on the right more Hungarian hot wax peppers.

Another view of the West Bunch, just pulled back a bit further to show the hot wax peppers planted with the oregano.
Below is the East Bunch Variety Pot. A droopy Stringless Blue Lake pole bean, still hanging in there on the back left end of the pot - and the dead one at the back right end of the pot. Rounding out the rest of this motley crew is the lone tomato a Window Box Roma and a pair of hot wax peppers.
An East Bunch gaggle of Golden Girls! These ladies are part of the Outer East arrangement, they sit out on the balcony railing in a full sun setting.

First Photos

Here are the first pictures from out little slice of heaven.

The first picture below is our "mesclun mix" from Vesey's Seeds, we planted this on April 4th 2009.

Here is our "east bunch" of pots. We call them the "east bunch" because they sit along the east side of the patio.

And here is the "west bunch", they are located at the west end of the balcony. West Bunch is home to our only other surviving pole bean, you can see its trashed leaves (yellowed) in the upper left hand pot. There is a third pole bean beside it that has since passed away, I deemed it dead today.

These are D-star's strawberries, $1.98 Special's from the local Rona. They hang out on the Outer West balcony railing looking at the traffic in the alley.














Here we have our Shady Corner, this pot is home to a Blue Lake Stringless Green Pole Bean, a bunch of chives, and some more Mesclun Mix. The pole bean is one of only 2 survivors from our initial batch of 12. Most died when being transplanted from 1x1 starter cells into 3x3 peat pots. It was quite a tragic feeling for the Master Gardener.

Welcome!

Welcome to Just Leafy! This is our little home on the web for our patio garden. Soon we'll be posting photos of our new patio garden from sunny Vancouver B.C.