Balcony garden

It's been over a year since I last posted, even though I've travelled so many places. I'm not too good at this blogging thing! But I have been a bit active on Pinterest, gathering inspiration for my Spring project entitled "Turn my horrible balcony into a wonderful place!"

Plants on my new shelf :)

I've lived in this apartment for over two years but hadn't done anything to decorate it or make it (and the balcony) cosier until recently, because it has always been, and remains, a 'temporary apartment'. My boyfriend and I have been planning to move since the moment he found the place, but we still haven't managed to find a place to live that is actually better while still affordable. Maybe one day...

This means that I'm going to try and stop complaining about not having a garden and fill my balcony with plants until I can't see anything but green :)


Here is what I started with:

As you can see, the view is of a newly-built apartment building, and some older ones a bit further away. No trees in sight :(

The balcony has no walls or roof, so it's a bit of a challenge to create privacy. It's also quite small, so not much will fit..

After searching for inspiration I decided that I would block out some of the view with a shelf of herbs and lots of tall plants. And of course a table and chairs are a necessity too!

A trip to Ikea a couple of weekends ago resulted in a nice set of a table and mini-chairs (they're really quite small) as well as the shelf I wanted.

My salad greens sprouting (01/04/12)

At Hema (an Ikea-style department store from the Netherlands) I found some seed starter kits and immediately planted coriander and a crate of salad greens.

Ikea balcony set and cushions, Hema picnic rug

With the result that now my balcony is semi-enjoyable :)

I'm off to Japan for 2 weeks but as soon as I'm back it's off to the garden centre to start accumulating tall, leafy plants!