2025/33 - A Ban on Barren Balconies!

 I live in an apartment, on the top (3rd) floor, with a view that is marred by another (1 floor higher) apartment. For a person that craves greenery, and felt like a fish living in a fish bowl when I first moved here, putting up a green plant barrier was my first priority!

My  South facing balcony was furnished sooner than my living room, I swear.

There was a lot of trial and error involved in the first few years, I can tell you. For example the wind...This being the Dutch Delta, we have a LOT of it, and it only seems to become heavier.

Mistake nr.1: most cottage plants (which I adore and are my go-to plants) do not like the combination of the scorching sun and that heavy wind. They struggled. Sometimes died.

Mistake nr.2: shade loving plants don't either.

Mistake nr.3: my effort to cover the two side walls with climbers. The wind tore them down.

BUT! Many Mediterranean plants are very happy on my balcony. They just need some TLC during the long wet winters we have over here. 

My neighbours witnessed my efforts and wisely shook their heads. No use putting plants up there, it won't work, they said. Please make sure those planters will not go flying and land on our cars, they moaned (to be fair, in one storm one plant did take a nose dive, but luckily it landed in the middle of the street). Don't you get tired of dragging all that soil up there, they asked.

Me being a stubborn sort, I kept doggedly explaining it could be done, it was only a case of using the correct plants. And yes, I would be mindful of their cars. And besides, in my opinion, having a balcony devoid of plants is bad, but putting plastic ones on (in vogue when I arrived in 2018) is sacrilege. That was usually the point when they raised their eyebrows and left me to it.

Trial and error

Through trial (lots of it) and error (sigh), I slowly learned which plants survive my balcony conditions and which plants even thrive on them. Like Pelargoniums. Not quite my favourite plants, but hey, beggars etcetera. And they have grown on me, I must admit. 

I built a trellis planter and after a hesitant start my Clematis now covers it and is up to the top of it (2m). Last year I chanced a Pandorea, and not only did it survive the winter, but this year it has joined the Clematis at the top.

Slowly, it took years, but surely, more and more balconies in my block turned green! I am so very happy with that!! I call it the zwaan-kleef-aan method (a Dutch expression about swans that makes no sense whatsoever, but means that if one sheep has crossed the bridge, the others will follow).

Most neighbours have gone trendy, putting expensive Olive trees and Trachycarpus on, and I am still the only one with railing planters, but still! It is a victory over barren desert concrete balconies!

Yay!!

And I grow tomatoes, cucumbers, beans, lettuce, strawberries, and spinach on the balcony as well. Amongst the herbs and flowers. Last year I grew potatoes. Why not?

There is a tiny pond for the birds to drink out of (don't tell Puck, she thinks it is her private drinking bowl), with flowering plants in it that thrive. I get visited by many birds, and one of the Jackdaws left me a pretty green pebble, smack in the middle, in front of my door. You can see it next to the jolly tortoise above.

Absolutely, dragging up all those bags of soil is a slog. And dragging down the bags of spent flowers and soil is as well. But the men opposite me (expats, that block is full of expats working in the industry) cannot ogle me any longer, instead they see a lovely balcony garden. Puck can enjoy herself stealing strawberries and barking at the dogs and cats passing below on the street. (She's not allowed to bark too long, and she solves this problem by coming indoors to bark, all the while looking at me for approval)

So. Do you have a balcony? Make it green! You will do the neighbourhood and yourself a favour.

By the way, I will paint that concrete soon. Just building up the courage...all those plants will have to be moved indoors. Oh dear.

Have a great week, wherever you are.

Renée Grashoff 

2025/28 - Promises, promises...this summer is bursting with them

 There were promises of rain. Except it was mizzle and did not make my garden ecstatic with joy. Then there were promises of fair weather; sunny with the gentle temperature of 23°. Except it was overcast with windforce 6 and 19°.

My conclusion is that our Met Office don't know what they are talking about. But I know that us being on an island facing the North Sea (sort of) makes the weather unpredictable. 

Anyway, my balcony has weathered the last storm, as my Clematis and Pandorea are proving. The white Pelargonium though I had to heavily deadhead. As I did the red ones. A single day of storm and wet make the heavy flowers turn brown.

When I enter Hunky Dory, I am first greeted by a lovely scent of the huge Fig next to the path (it is my never visiting neighbour's and has reverted back to Jungle) and then by that of my Fennel family. It is just about coming into flower. From one specimen it has produced ample offspring, which is now all over the place. I quite like it, so it can stay, for now. But this is the limit, if it colonises even more of my garden, I will start removing it.

 And here it is: the sun has come out as I write. I immediately lowered the sunscreen, as it will become unbearably hot in my flat otherwise.

As an aside: this was an outing to the beach Tuesday: you know, when it would be fair. Instead my three friends and I were sandblasted and soaked. That beach is in Ouddorp, the nearest thing we have to desert. It is huge. To reach the sea takes a 20 minute walk.

And back to the balcony. Sorry my friend, this is a back- and forth experience. 

The cherry Tomato is producing loads of tomatoes. So far three were ripe, and tasted...mwah. I have high hopes for my other one though, as it is a zebra Tomato I had two years ago, and it was lovely.

This is Victoria. And finally, after 4 years of sulking and not producing flowers, she is looking good! She was next to the obelisk, and apparently hated it. As soon as I took it away she started growing.

This is it. I cannot for the life of me begin to think WHY Victoria hates it. The perennial Lathyrus and white grape like it just fine and are having a race to the top.

Last week I promised I would move the Clivia to a shadier spot and I have. Hopefully this suits her better.

Small, unpretentious, but one of my favourite flowers: the Mexican Fleabane. Suddenly my country has also discovered it, and it is in the nurseries. I had to sow it myself before, and failed, but this one is doing great. I will carefully remove the seedheads and sprinkle them everywhere.

I'll leave you with a photo I took in Ouddorp. There is a milk goat farm there, De Mekkerstee. Hundreds of goats, the scent and sound of them was overwhelming, hahaha. But in the middle of goat chaos was this couple having a loving cuddle. It was so cute, and they kept it up for ages. I adore goats, so had a great time cuddling the ones that came up to the fence.

Okay, this is it. Have a great weekend wherever you are!

Renée Grashoff 

2025/23 - Rain! RAIN!!

 First of all: I made a typo last week, sorry. It was blogpost 2025/22 (and not 12). And I have uploaded a new blogpost to my website Renée Grashoff Schrijft

And here we are: it has started raining - finally!

I woke up to the sound of rain lashing my bedroom window on Friday, and I rejoiced. No other word for it. My plants were very happy as well, I could tell. The only thing is, it not only started raining, but the temperature plummeted as well. Going from 26 to 10° degrees C during the morning, was a bit of a shock to my system. And I bet to the system of my tomatoes as well, poor things. Suddenly I was back into sweaters and wearing a mac.

And then disaster struck. I hurt my left knee. Again. My arteries in that leg are bad, it's a family thing...Not that that knowledge helps.

Anyway... going gardening has had to be postponed for a few days. So the photo above was my balcony on Sunday. And the rest of the photos below are as well.

But hey, my frog pond is saved, it was on the brink of having dried up completely. So I am not complaining!

Still, last week I told you I am thinking hard about my plants. If this Spring drought is going to be a yearly given, it makes sense to take out the ones most affected by the dry spell. 

I did a round in the pouring rain Friday  morning to see which plants looked drab, and which had done well despite getting no water at all for three months.

It is about 50/50.

Which have done worst? My veg. Such a waste of money and above all: time.

Still, I did get two meals out of my two sugarsnap plants. And the curly endive did well, as well as the lettuce.

But the cabbage? Disaster!

I have high hopes for this grape though, it seems to be doing well so far, as does the one in the garden.

So now I am waiting for the berries: strawberry, yellow raspberry and red currant all have survived.

I wish I could show you the lilies and roses in Hunky Dory though...they are all looking absolutely wonderful!

Hopefully next week.

Have a good time, wherever you are.

Renée Grashoff 

2025/13 - Blooming Balcony

Frosty nights, but gloriously sunny days, so my balcony garden has woken up. I have taken a chance on the weather and dared to hang up the planters on the railing again. It could mean a dash in the night to take them down again when there's a storm brewing, but I'll see it when it gets here. 

Blossoms from the street

The many blossom trees in my neighbourhood have woken up too, lovely!

I woke up at 6 a.m. as is my habit, and was greeted by a gorgeous citrussy scent, so I thought wow, that blossom smells divine! Until I noticed that Puck had molested my lemon pelargonium...Her breath smelled very un-doggielike for the rest of the day, which was good, but I watched her like a hawk to see if she would not suffer any ill effects. Fortunately she didn't.

This morning I watered the balcony plants, and saw that many of them have started growing. 75% Of my pelargoniums have survived the winter, which is bloody marvellous!

I did buy some forget-me-nots, as I adore that colour blue. I have combined them with pelargoniums (bloodred) and aubretia Antique Rose Imp (pink), so that I have some colour.

But there are also creamy white primulas, the ones on a stem. They are next to the Maroccan mint, bergenia, astilbe, parsley,  thyme and sage in the ground planter. By the time that mint takes over the primulas are past their prime anyway.

In one of the railing planters there are a few digitalis which have self-seeded. That will be interesting to watch when they grow...

Stipa and Pelargoniums as well as ....?

Because the veg did quite well on the balcony in 2024, I planted some endive next to the grape hyacinths. When the gh are spent, I will put a cucumber in as well.

And I also have a sugarsnap, for the first time. Let's see how that fares. I have one in Hunky Dory as well, so I can compare their performance.

Endive to the left, bulbs to the right

   There is rapeseed behind the sugarsnap to try to lure the pollinators. I tried some runner beans in 2019, but I had exactly one bean...

   The salvia and fuchsia are showing signs of life, and the mini rose is looking promising.

   But what is the star at the moment is the yellow wallflower. From a small plant two years ago, it has practically taken over the entire trellis planter. Totally crowded out my white grape, that is a shame. But the clematis is putting out new growth as well, so that doesn't mind that wallflower one bit.

Isn't she cheerful?!

The purple clematis

   I am really looking forward to the next few months. My gardens never cease to uplift my spirits.

   I hope you will have a great weekend, wherever you live. Especially you over there in Singapore, Hong Kong and Mexico though! You are my best readers at the moment, thanks very much. I would dearly love to visit your gardens. Perhaps one day...

   Greetings,

   Renée 

2025 /1 - I love snowy days

 When Puck woke me this morning (06.30, so good dog) we stepped out of the door into a white winter wonderland. And it was still snowing, so my doggy was happy instantly. She adores snow, as do I.

This watercolour is from 2020, I painted it after the last time we had proper snow. 

Puck and I were the only ones out, except for the many waterfowl, who had marched down the path before us, leaving their prints.

But at 8 a.m. the snow had already melted and it had turned to rain, such a shame.

So to cheer myself up, I looked at some old balcony garden photos, from a few years ago. I am already looking forward to the new gardening season, aren't you?

My hands are itching to start, but I know from experience I will have to wait a bit. My greenhouse is unheated. So far my attempts to grow runner beans have been rather feeble, but I'm determined to try again this year, in another spot, and from pots. My clay has thwarted me so far, so this year I will try a new strategy. Why not? I have plenty of large pots.

And look, one of my neighbours grew pumpkins in his raised bed, so I'll try that (again) this year too! And I'd love to attempt one of those weird hanging yellow courgettes. So: the only way is UP! Up from that rock hard summer soil that keeps frustrating a lot of my efforts.

I'll leave you with a photo of what is to come very soon. I cannot wait!

Have a good January, enjoy the snow if you are lucky enough to have it (now don't grumble at me, having months and months of grey skies and rain is no picnic I tell you!).

Renée 

186E - And here we go: storm and sunshine

 At the beginning of this week we had a storm, force 7, so just to be safe I took down my railing planters and put them on the floor. I cannot have them fly away and land on the cars below.

Totally soaked plants

One night we had a succession of 5 thunder storms, that caused my poor old Puck to hide shaking on my lap for hours. Afterwards I could hardly walk, my legs were that stiff. Well...anything for my baby...

I was sure that summer had left us, but I am not complaining! It was a lovely summer from July on, and almost all of my tomatoes ripened.

My cyclamen is happy

Those days of driving rain have turned my Pelargoniums into a soggy brown mass once again though, so I cut them off.

But, on Friday it suddenly returned to summer. In Hunky Dory the many Asters smiled at me in many shades of pink, purple and white.

Because some plants have disappeared  (my Salvia Amistad, unfortunately vanished), I have planted some new ones in the gaps. Campanula glomerata 'Alba' , some extra Erigeron (can't have too much of that) and Camassia Leichtinii will hopefully survive. I noticed my Toscan Jasmine doing nothing much. So frustrating, as it is scrambling all over the fences in my street. That's the third climber that is a disaster against my pergola. But I will try again.

Tree spinach making seed

   The day-lilies that I planted in the bed next to the greenhouse are doing well, two of them are even making flowers again. With a bit of luck they will bloom before the first frost hits us. This evening it will get down to 0°C in the north-east, but not with us this near the coast.

   On the balcony I hope to be able to gather some tree spinach seeds soon. They did very well, after a slow start. I plan to try them in the garden next year, see how they fare.

I get the idea that my plants on the balcony are protecting eachother now that they are all grouped together. I hope I am right.

In any case the purple Clematis is doing much better than in the previous years. Her feet are completely hidden by the Wallflower and Digitalis that have self-seeded there. She seems to like it.

This weekend is going to be sunny over here, and hopefully in England as well, so enjoy yourself! Oh, and don't forget to plant your bulbs.

Renée 

186 - En daar gaan we: storm en zon.

 Voor het begin van de week was windkracht 7 voorspeld, dus ik heb voor alle zekerheid de railingbakken eraf gehaald en op de grond gezet, waar ze de rest van de herfst/winter/lente zullen blijven staan. Onze stormen worden steeds extremer en ik kan me geen wegvliegende bakken die beneden op de auto's landen veroorloven.

Volkomen verzopen planten

Op een avond hadden we maar liefst 5 onweersbuien op rij, zodat mijn arme Puck trillend als een rietje uren op schoot heeft gelegen. Na afloop kon ik bijna niet lopen, zo verkrampt waren mijn benen. Tja... anything for my baby...

Het is vast de definitieve ommekeer geweest van de zomer naar de herfst. Maar mij hoor je niet klagen! Het was uiteindelijk een heerlijke zomer en bijna al mijn tomaten zijn rood geworden.

Mijn cyclaam bloeit vrolijk verder

Maar een aantal dagen slagregens hebben de Pelargoniums weer in een bruine massa veranderd, die ik opnieuw afgeknipt heb.

Overigens was het op vrijdag ineens schitterend zonnig weer. In Hunky Dory straalden de vele Asters me in allerlei schakeringen rose en wit tegemoet. Omdat een aantal planten verdwenen zijn (o.a. mijn Salvia Amistad, helaas volkomen weg) heb ik wat nieuwe gezet. 

In de hoop dat zij het wel overleven, heb ik Campanula glomerata 'Alba', wat extra Erigeron ( je kunt nooit teveel hebben) en Camassia Leichtlinii geplant. Ik zag dat de Toscaanse jasmijn die ik tegen mijn prieeltje had gezet, ook niet veel doet. Zó frustrerend, want in mijn straat zie ik dezelfde plant enthousiast tegen de schuttingen opklimmen. Dat is klimplant nummer drie die niet op die plek wil groeien. Maar ik hou stug vol.

De boomspinazie bloeit.

   

   Ik zag ook dat de daglelies die ik in de strook naast het pad geplant heb goed zijn aangeslagen. Twee van de vier hebben zelfs nieuwe bloemknoppen gemaakt. Met een beetje geluk gaan ze nog bloeien voor dat de nachtvorst invalt. Vannacht zal het in het noordoosten 0°C zijn, maar gelukkig hier aan de kust nog niet.

   Op het balkon hoop ik binnenkort boomspinaziezaad te kunnen oogsten. De planten hebben het na een trage start heel goed gedaan. Ik ben van plan ze volgend jaar in de tuin te zetten, kijken hoe ze het daar doen.

Ik heb het idee dat het feit dat mijn planten op het balkon nu op een kluitje staan ze bescherming biedt. Hopelijk heb ik gelijk.

In elk geval heeft die paarse Clematis het nog niet eerder zo goed gedaan. Haar voet wordt volkomen overwoekerd door de muurbloem en Digitalis die zich ervoor hebben genesteld (hebben zich allebei zelf uitgezaaid), maar ze lijkt het prima te vinden.

Nog eventjes genieten van de zon dit weekend! Oh en vergeet niet dat je je bollen moet planten.

Renée