Mid-April, during the last semi-cold-ish spell of the 2010 spring, I bought a pot of pansies. I was determined to green up our barren balcony. I was determined to keep a plant alive. This plant. Any plant.I learned that pansies are a cold-weather plant, which was a bit disappointing because I knew the weather was only going to get warmer. But it was a lush, beautiful pot, and I figured if it was going to die as the weather got warmer, I might as well make the most of it and develop the self-discipline to take care of a plant. I developed a routine of watering it everyday and turning it periodically so each side of the plant got adequate sunshine. When it was excessively windy, I moved the pot indoors so the flowers wouldn't get too harsh a beating from the wind. I learned to pinch off the flowers that withered to give the other flowers more resources to grow bigger.As the weather got warmer, experience taught me that the pansies would wilt from the heat, but would re-straighten with a good watering. I kept up the watering through May, but as of now, with the weather pretty consistently warm and periodically humid, the pansies are a little worse for wear, with one side of the pot pretty much dead yet the remaining portions inexplicably thriving. There is a lopsided look to the plant but I'll try to keep them alive as long as possible! I'm encouraged by the fact that I've kept a plant alive for 2 months now, which is certainly a record for me.About a month after getting the pansies, feeling excited about my new balcony accessory, I got an herb-growing kit for $7 from, of all places, Bed Bath and Beyond. I was skeptical, but figured that for a few bucks, it was worth a shot to add some more greenery that was edible to boot. The herb-growing kit included a growing "tin/bucket", some soft dirt (looked like chocolate cake mix), liquid fertilizer, and seed packs for basil, parsley, and chives.Here are the seedlings just starting to sprout. I was such a proud mama! As you can see from the first picture, the basil came up first, and the other herb sprouts are barely identifiable, although I guess you can tell they're chives because they just look like little grass blades.
The second photo above was taken a mere day later, so you can get a sense of how quickly the plants were growing! Although the parsley were definitely late bloomers - at this point they really hadn't come up at all and I was afraid the seeds were duds. Magic beans, so to speak.A week later, though, the parsley definitely caught up! The sprouts were going into toddler-mode. What's interesting is that the parsley was NOT recognizable - instead of the jagged, maple-leaf like shape, their leaves were more like pointed ovals. In fact, Chris was pretty 
convinced that the parsley was actually the basil, but I'm going off on a tangent.I watered the herbs daily and gave them liquid fertilizer about once a week and was really excited by their growth. I kept the tin pot on our windowsill, and had to rotate it once - sometimes even twice - a day because the herbs grew so conspicuously towards the sun. If you check out this photo, you can see that most clearly in the parsley (on the right side).
Towards the end of May, I made the heart-wrenching discovery that keeping the herbs indoors had one huge drawback that had mysteriously eluded me for the entire time since I'd had them - GRUNDTON. One afternoon, I caught him chewing voraciously (as much as a housecat can with a houseplant) at a few blades of chives, with several of the chives and a few of the parsley uprooted. Although I was hesitant to expose the herbs to really windy days, I decided they were grown up enough to start keeping them outdoors on the balcony with the pansies (and a completely wilted, dried up pot of dahlias that didn't take to my care).This past weekend, I decided that the herbs were getting too big to still share a pot, so I transplanted the heartiest of the 3 - the basil (as the chives didn't seem to be recovering too well from Grundton's marauding, and the parsley were only so-so) - into its own container. The leaves are HUGE now! I was really nervous about the transplant and I tried to be really gentle as to not damage any roots. Now, a few days later, the basil seems to still be growing steadily and the leaves look healthy. Woohoo!! No plant murderer here. (Although I'm crossing my fingers on the chives and parsley. Although technically the murderer there would be Grundton.)
The newest member of the family is a couple of begonias I purchased at the same place I got the pansies - P. Spinelli & Sons, a landscape and nursery joint in Narberth. The begonias on the left (with the smaller flowers) enjoy a full sun, while the larger type of begonias on the right thrive in partial shade. I decided to go with begonias because we're getting into the heat of summer and I figured frost-averse flowers would last the longest at this time of year, and they don't require as diligent watering as the pansies. 
I'm hoping that they continue to do well, and if they survive into mid-July, I'll definitely be looking into some new additions!More plant updates to come...
It's a gorgeous Saturday morning! The view from my balcony in the summer is one of lush, lively greenery, and after a long week of work I am content to let Chris sleep in, and just sit outside and let the feeling of having no obligations wash over me with the morning breeze. Grundton is out here with me too, alternately relaxing and rolling around, massaging himself against the rough concrete of the balcony floor, and exploring the sight and sounds of the outdoors - poking his head through the railing to identify the mild sounds of construction workers and car engines below, and following flittering bugs with his eyes, letting little agitated meows erupt from his throat. It's a very different kind of stimulation from what he usually gets indoors, and it's rare for him to be allowed to just hang out on the balcony. Occasionally I have to get up from where I'm sitting to keep a close eye on him - although I'm pretty relaxed about him interacting with the outdoors and I trust him to know not to do anything rash, I am cautious when he pokes his body just a tad too far out over the balcony. He knows this, too! When I call out with a coaxing "Grundton!" he meows in slight protest at my interjection, but always pulls his body back from the railing instinctively. But there is no denying it. We both love lounging outdoors!
