With silver bells and cockle shells

Thought I would post an update on my gardening adventures.
Even though we are on the second floor of a block of units the balcony is now never referred to as 'the balcony' - it is 'the garden'. Each morning Trogdor and I inspect the garden together i.e I look at the plants and he eats dirt. In the evening I check the garden again to make sure nothing has wilted or been devoured. I'm a trifle obsessive about it these days.
It all started in June of this year when I thought I would pick up a couple of dwarf fruit trees to provide a bit of greenery and (hopefully) fruit. Then I decided to try to grow tomatoes. Things just sort of got out of hand from there.
I began well before I had any idea of what I was doing. The majority of the 'hardware' (the polystyrene boxes, large tubs, drink-bottle-watering-cans and packing crates) have been 're-purposed' after I found them lying on footpaths around the suburb. I like to think of it as 'County Garden meets Mad Max'.
Some of my garden has been grown from seed (which I think is a hella impressive even if the plants themselves aren't) and some of them are from seedlings (less impressive effort with a more impressive result).
From seeds:

Roma Tomato seedlings. The white around the base is potash which is meant to be very good for them but no two gardeners can decide when is the best time to apply them to the plant.

The first of my basil seeds to germinate.

The first of my 'Cottage Mix' flower baskets. I should be thinning the seedlings but I'm just going to let them grow and see what happens. (Is it odd that I feel horribly guilty after chopping out perfectly healthy plants?)










The second of my flower baskets. This one was sown more thinly with seeds so we'll see how it goes.






Beetroot. Has been thinned. Needs more thinning. (I feel like my garden is on some sort of Jenny Craig ad.)

Coriander.

Marigolds. These desperately need to be thinned out. My plan is to replant them into little pots this weekend and give them out as presents.

My snow peas. They have been growing like crazy and are my most impressive seed grown plants.











Things I didn't grow from seed:



Passion fruit. I think it has some sort of fungal whatzi so I've been spraying it with whatzi fungal pesticide. It's going to need a much bigger container if it's going to grow. Luckily I have some 're-purposed' 20L Omo buckets.

Parsley. Needs re-potting. I have also been growing parsley from seed but it's harder than I thought it would be. Apparently the seeds have a very low germination rate and even if they do germinate I've found them to be quite temperamental (they just die for no discernible reason)

Dwarf lemon tree. Lots of flowers. All the other lemons in the area are covered with fruit so I don't know if the little guy is a bit backward.

Broccoli. I have to remove the middle row and re-pot them. Note to new gardeners - pay attention to the spacing guidelines when you're planting!

Asparagus. I have no idea how to grow asparagus. Apparently it will be another two years before it starts growing spears and only if I chop it all back, mulch it, replant it, give it lots/little/no water and/or fertilizer, sacrifice a goat to the asparagus gods... Plus, it's covered in tiny bugs. I don't think they're meant to be there.

An amused Trogdor, who can't understand why I don't get my food from booba like sensible people do.
(He should probably be in the 'grown from seed' section')

My three strawberry plants with one flower between them.

Spring onions.

My peach tree - formerly known as 'stick in a bag'.

I have also developed an interest in heirloom/heritage tomatoes. I have a few seedlings struggling away at the moment but they're a bit depressing really.

And there you have it folks. My garden.