We bought our first flat in the end of 2007 and our second one in 2012, but only renovated and joined them together in 2013. When we put them together we also joined the balconies and ended up with one very skinny and very long balcony. For most of the year it's just a long grey space that collects dust off the busiest street in Berlin, bird droppings and dry autumn leaves. But in summer when the weather does pick up for a few months and when it's not too windy we do love to sit on it and see the city life go by.
So I've been cherishing the idea of having something green there. About two years ago I decided that vines or something such like would be great there. I've done some research. We even went with Emmi to look at some plants in the local hardware and gardening store two years ago. Then nothing happened. Last summer the desire picked up again in spring, but then nothing happened either. So when the desire came again this spring I had a firm belief that it will come and go. But no! Given that we came back early from our road trip we actually had Thursday and Friday with Jack to ourselves while boys were at Kita. We used Thursday wisely by just hanging out in a cafe by the river brunching and then shopping for new kids clothes. But Friday we decided to be productive... first we took our car for a quote of repair, so that it can at some point be fixed. While it was being looked at by the mechanic we went shopping for pots and plants and vine supports. We first hit IKEA to see what they had... that took about 2 hours. Then we went to pick up the car after the quote and drove to the hardware store next door. That took another 2.5 hours. While Jack was paying for and loading into the boot the stuff we bought there, I went to IKEA again to buy stuff from there that we were not sure of the first time around. So a mere 5 hours and some couple of hundreds of euros later we drove home via a major detour due to a culture festival this week, needless to say in a less than happy and content mood. To illustrate the mood we were in, here's a little sketch from KVN (sorry, Russian only)...
BUT... on Saturday with the help of the boys we put it all up and now our balcony looks a bit more like it should in my fantasy. We bought five big pots for climbing plants and five types of climbing berries to go in them. There are all the berries that my Grandpa used to have in his country house - raspberries, black currants, red currants, goosberries and blueberries (actually I think Grandpa didnt' have any of them, but in any case...). We also bought some lavender and a little olive tree in a pot, but it's already starting to look a bit sad*. Here are some photos of the balcony as it is now...
* NB: I am not much of a gardener... the only plants that don't die around me are cacti and succulents. But I am hopeful... and there's Google to help.
So I've been cherishing the idea of having something green there. About two years ago I decided that vines or something such like would be great there. I've done some research. We even went with Emmi to look at some plants in the local hardware and gardening store two years ago. Then nothing happened. Last summer the desire picked up again in spring, but then nothing happened either. So when the desire came again this spring I had a firm belief that it will come and go. But no! Given that we came back early from our road trip we actually had Thursday and Friday with Jack to ourselves while boys were at Kita. We used Thursday wisely by just hanging out in a cafe by the river brunching and then shopping for new kids clothes. But Friday we decided to be productive... first we took our car for a quote of repair, so that it can at some point be fixed. While it was being looked at by the mechanic we went shopping for pots and plants and vine supports. We first hit IKEA to see what they had... that took about 2 hours. Then we went to pick up the car after the quote and drove to the hardware store next door. That took another 2.5 hours. While Jack was paying for and loading into the boot the stuff we bought there, I went to IKEA again to buy stuff from there that we were not sure of the first time around. So a mere 5 hours and some couple of hundreds of euros later we drove home via a major detour due to a culture festival this week, needless to say in a less than happy and content mood. To illustrate the mood we were in, here's a little sketch from KVN (sorry, Russian only)...
BUT... on Saturday with the help of the boys we put it all up and now our balcony looks a bit more like it should in my fantasy. We bought five big pots for climbing plants and five types of climbing berries to go in them. There are all the berries that my Grandpa used to have in his country house - raspberries, black currants, red currants, goosberries and blueberries (actually I think Grandpa didnt' have any of them, but in any case...). We also bought some lavender and a little olive tree in a pot, but it's already starting to look a bit sad*. Here are some photos of the balcony as it is now...
* NB: I am not much of a gardener... the only plants that don't die around me are cacti and succulents. But I am hopeful... and there's Google to help.
Best of luck. Hopefully they'll take. I always get excited about gardening in spring, but completely ignore the garden in summer heat.
ReplyDeleteThanks! We'll see. So far, so good... they're all growing, some even have green berries on them. But yeah - we'll see how it goes over a longer period of time :)
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