garden life link up

I had every intention of posting this right before moving day, but it just didn’t happen. So instead I’m posting it now and that’s okay too since I’m fairly certain that once we get through this incredibly hot spell here, all of these plants will have survived. That wasn’t exactly a sure thing a few weeks ago when I dug them all up…

As you might have noticed in some of my other posts, we do have a small balcony at our new place. It’s big enough for Ayla to comfortably stretch out on even with the plants on it. The only think I’ll likely add up there at some point is a few tomato plants. But they just didn’t fit on the truck this time around — so if they happen to still be growing once we go back to the farm next weekend (and we can find a place for them in the car), we’ll bring them back. Otherwise, we’ll just have to rely on the local produce we buy at the market — and I can assure you that they have some of the most delicious tomatoes we’ve ever eaten (but I’ll get to our awesome farmers’ markets at another time).

Garden Life in Berlin

In addition to the space outdoors, we also have some space inside….that is once we get all the full and empty boxes outta here. The three that we currently have in the living room look dwarfed by the place… and they’re not tiny plants.

Garden Life in Berlin

So what ended up coming with us from the farm? Not as much as I possibly could have taken, but I was trying to only take what is really important to us and the healthiest of the plants. The hanging strawberry plant was a must because it’s done quite well lately. We also brought the 2 bonsai trees we still have since they are definitely part of the family now. We may get some sort of stand somewhere along the lines so we can stagger the heights of these — something from a flea market or freecycle would be ideal.

Garden Life in Berlin

We brought one jalapeno plant, the olive tree (which I finally seem to have rid of bugs), the stevia, our best rosemary bush (the other went to my MIL) and we’ve even bought our first two plants already — cat grass and basil. The basil is in the kitchen and is already trying to die. If anyone has a secret to keeping store-bought basil alive for more than a few weeks, please let me know! I swear they jinx them on purpose so you have to keep buying more.

Lucky for us, there is a little railing with enough space for thin planter boxes all the way around the edge. And as it turns out, there are enough planter boxes down in our basement to actually fill the railing. So I’ll only need to drag some dirt upstairs with us to get them going again. I’m planning to put strawberries in thee since they should do pretty well in the narrow spaces, will spread out across the bins and and can even grow over the sides if they want to. I might also throw some decorative flowers in with them next year to add a bit more color to things.

 

One thing we can also do is utilize a bit more of the window bank space that is over the balcony. I’m even thinking about putting the bonsai up there since it will be a nice place away from commotion for them, and we can see them from the living room. In fact, the window overlooking the balcony is right next to my desk which would make it quite nice to sit at. And there are a couple more window ledges (they’re all about 1 foot deep and don’t have much slope to them) on the courtyard side of the building which would also support window boxes. In fact, the last tenant must have had something up there because there are a few flimsy support brackets in place already. I don’t know that we’ll be trying to grown all of our own produce anytime soon (not that we did that on the farm either) but there are definitely options for growing our own lettuce, a few tomatoes, peppers and plenty of pretty things to brighten our days.

So am I going into withdrawal already because I don’t have a garden to weed or a bunch of plants around us all the time? It might surprise you, but no. As you can tell, there are more growing options than we first realized. There are some great big linden trees just outside the front door of the apartment building and, in general, Berlin has a lot of green spaces. Plus people around here also seem to like adding a bit of life and color to their places. In fact if I look at the apartments around us, nearly half of them have at least some sort of plants growing. Despite being in the big city, there’s lots of green life around, so that is definitely making it a much easier transition.

Garden Life in Berlin

Have you ever tried to become an apartment gardener? What would be the most important thing for you to grow if you moved to the city? 


Want to join in the garden fun and link to your own blog or images online? You can share about anything related to gardening, old or new posts, from recipes to harvesting to grow reports to DIY projects or inspiration.

Here’s how this works:

PLEASE READ THESE GUIDELINESespecially if you have never linked up before!

  • You are free to join the Garden Life link up at any time. You can also skip a few weeks and then come back. It’s entirely up to you.
  • Please link directly to a post about your garden, a recipe, a tutorial for gardening, an inspirational idea, etc that relates to GARDENING — not your main blog URL.
  • Please only link to your own blog or photos hosted online.
  • You MUST link back to No Ordinary Homestead or a Garden Life link up post in your blog post. This way, if someone else wants to join the fun, they can. You can either link with text or using the Garden Life badge.
    Below is a code for the badge above. Just copy and paste this code into your post or save and upload the image to your blog:
    <a href=”https://www.noordinaryhomestead.com/garden-life-link-up/“><img title=”garden-life-300″ src=”https://www.noordinaryhomestead.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/07/garden-life-300.gif” alt=”garden link up” width=”301″ height=”301″ /></a>
  • I highly encourage you to visit other participants and leave comments. This is a great way to meet new friends and become inspired about your garden! I try to visit all the blogs participating as well 🙂

That’s it! Share your garden with us by linking up below!