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I made tea from scratch!
The black actually tasted like black, just very weak. The green was a lovely soft taste, but the hojicha had a somewhat off-putting aroma.
#GrowYourOwn #Tea #BalconyGarden

The tea camellia in bloom - a creamy white five petalled flower with a million and one yellow-pollen-tipped stamen clipped tightly to a spindly woody stalk and dark green leaves.

The three teas drying - top left is hojicha (pan roasted, but still very green, starting to crumble on the edges), left is green (steamed, softer and more supply leaves), right is a very weak black (hand crushed and left to oxidise for a few days, torn and crumbly in a washed out green). Leaves resting on baking paper on a kitchen bench.

Preparing three small cups for a taste test - three small green tea cups have wire mesh baskets either leaves and hot water in them on a kitchen bench. The square glass jars with dried leaves inside and labels stuck to their silver lids sit behind - this was not a blind test.

Ban công hứng nắng nhiều, đặc biệt là hướng Tây? Đừng lo! Chọn ngay 9 loại cây cảnh ưa nắng như xương rồng, lan quân tử, sen đá, lưỡi hổ, hồng môn, phú quý, trầu bà vàng, ngọc ngân, và cây dây nhện – chúng phát triển tốt dưới ánh nắng trực tiếp, ít bị cháy lá và giúp không gian thêm xanh mát.

#CayCanh #BalconyGarden #PlantLovers #GardeningTips #CayTrongNha #GreenSpace #Houseplants #UrbanGarden
#CâyCảnhBanCông #CâyƯaNắng #TrồngCâyXanh #LàmVườn #CâyPhongThủy #VườnNhỏ #SốngXanh

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Citrus are now in for winter, on a very wet day, so they were awful heavy. Anyone have experience with LED GU10 plant grow lights? Thinking of replacing the downlights during winter here with the Paulmann grow lights - would it help them to not lose so many leaves?
#garden #BalconyGarden #ProductiveGarden #GrowYourOwn

A row of shoulder height citrus trees in pots on wheeled platforms are lined up in front of a corner bath in a beige-tiled bathroom near the balcony door and window. It’s already dark outside (at 4pm!). Some of the pots have weeds in them, some of the trees have fruit on them. There are three lemons (blood, orange-cross, lime cross), a japanese kumquat, yuzu, satsuma mandarin and blood orange.

Flowers from the balcony in late autumn.

#Bloomscrolling #BalconyGarden #BalkonGarten

A purple dahlia, a young echinacea, single yellow and white many-petalled chrysanthemums, and a very long, bloom-heavy ruffled apricot culinary rose. The brown and gold tall vase is absolutely not balanced, with the rose leaning out away from the wall, in front of a warm-lit kitchen.

A tiny glass beaker vase in a ceramic log with a cute brown totoro holds a single stem of cherry blossoms in front of a TV on a glass-topped console table. Autumnalis subhirtella is living up to its name and flowering beautifully this year.

A small crystal bud vase holds two small camellia flowers, both with a few dark green leaves attached. One is white and the other pink. The vase sits on a red and gold cloth mat with gold tassles, with a cute elephant figurine and copper/gold incense burner nearby.

Autumn is ending earlier this year. Cookie is spending little time outside, but always on her munch-grass patch under one of the sakura.

#BalconyGarden #Balkongarten #CatsOfMastodon #autumn

Sunrise over the east wing of the old factory complex that was converted to flats. The sky goes from a brilliant orange through all the pinks to a dusky blue.

Brilliant yellow autumn leaves of a tall (plane?) tree contrast against the solid blue sky and old 5-story German housing (flats).

Almost fallen red-orange autumn leaves are still attached to a potted Japanese maple in a walled balcony garden.

A ginger and black tabby Maine Coon cat with a white chin and an intense stare loafs in a sakura tree plastic grey pot on a bed of munched grass (grown from the packing straw that a nursery uses to send plants - likely rye or wheat - if left alone, the grass makes grain. She’s cold and grumpy at the oft windy, cold weather.

Loads of plants are flowering in the balcony. More than summer! Very pretty out there with the autumn colours too.
#bloomscrolling #BalconyGarden #BalkonGarten

The late yellow single chrysanthemum has started flowering, just about to unfurl in front of a backdrop of autumnal foliage and white double chrysanthemum.

The spindly purple echinaceas are flowering again in their small pot on the balcony, near a blue-leafed eucalyptus and lush Australian/NZ mint bush.

The Autumnalis Sakura is covered with swelling flower buds, even as it has lost most of its orange autumn leaves. A few delicate white-pink flowers dot the near-empty branches.

A pink camellia flower is unfurling against shiny dark green leaves on the small potted tree on the balcony. The spindly branches are heavy with flower buds.

Buck's Horn Plantain
#Plantago coronopus -- "not in your grocery store" -- probably have to #growYourOwn

Why? It's one of the easiest tastier salads I've tried to grow that I can actually eat - _doesn't_ contain masses of oxalic acid, or pepper-like substances which induce joint pains and/or immediate expulsion in me like many alt-salads. It can look after itself in pretty tough circumstances, yet responds with juicy abundance to irrigation, mild sun and plenty of feed. It seeds itself but easy enough to remove from where you dont want it.

Your bonus gem for reading this here -- nowhere yet have I seen it mentioned that this plant has long-life leaf meristems, near ground level deep in the rosette, so you can quickly snip the whole rosette above them and the _existing_ leaves just continue to extend and grow, without the delay of generating new leaf buds. This also seems to supress flowering. The only other common plants I know that do this are monocots.

#kitchenGarden #allotment #balconyGarden

Camera connection still not fixed so this net pic. Had to scroll several pages to find pic that looked anything like as juicy and abundant as the 2 plants I just snipped the tops for supper salad. Most of the pics looked leggy or like dried-up road-side material. Here, long, clean, succulent-lush-green leaved rosette with its characteristic horn-like spaced teeth.

Camellias produce seed pods - learnt something new 😀

There are two varieties on the balcony, sinensis and hagoromo, with seed pods at the moment. They may not grow true to type though.

https://internationalcamellia.org/en-us/grafting-and-propagation/camellia-seeds

#gardening #CamelliaSinensis #camellia #BalconyGarden #BalkonGarten

Large and flattish camellia sinensis seeds on the tree in the autumn balcony garden. Several leaves on the tree have brown damage.

A large light green and very smooth ball-like camellia hagoromo seed on a branch in the autumn balcony garden.

Today I harvested my first 2 yellow submarine tomatoes (and probably my last) from my raised beds in my balcony. It's something.

Learnings for next year:
- Start seedlings early in bigger containers
- Use soil instead of compressed seed starters
- make sure that the soil has enough moisture

#growyourownfood #harvest #balconygarden

Photo of my hand holding 2 yellow submarine tomatoes that I just harvested.

Making tea from scratch - green (steamed), hojicha (roasted, foreground) - now in the oven - and black (oxidised, will take a few days).

Following https://www.wilsonbrosgardens.com/how-to-make-tea-from-camellia-sinensis-tea-plant.html

I rolled and rolled the black tea leaves upon themselves but they certainly didn’t go red!

It’s an experiment that may or may not work!

#BalconyGarden #GrowItYourself #BalkonGarten #CamelliaSinensis

Rolled and squished green leaves rest in a glass container on a tiled windowsill in the shade. These should dry slowly, oxidising to become black tea.

Green camellia sinensis leaves are spread out on a baking sheet lined either brown baking paper. The far leaves are a bit damp from being steamed (green tea), and the foreground are singled along their edges (hojicha).

There's no greater place to look for balcony garden inspiration than RHS Chelsea, and here are 4 entries from this year's show. In my new Balcony and Container Garden category, find out all you need to know from plants that will stand extreme weather to reducing weight.

https://www.mandycanudigit.com/2025/09/23/balcony-gardening-showing-off-container-plants-at-their-best/

#gardening #balconygarden #balcony #balconygardening #containergarden #containergardening #potplants #pots

Shady green and white themed balcony show garden from RHS Chelsea.

Jamaican-themed balcony show garden from RHS Chelsea.

Pink and green themed balcony show garden from RHS Chelsea.

Balcony show garden with trees from RHS Chelsea.

Everyone loves a Tradescantia ‘Purple Heart’ flower 🌸

#tradescantia #plants #bloomscrolling #balconygarden

Begonia is feeling really in this spot. ❤️🌱
#plant #begonia #balconygarden

The nights are getting colder so it's time to end the balcony garden season 2025.
Looking forward to the next year. 🌱❤️🍃
#plants #balconygarden #basil #thyme #oregano

Obligatory messing about with a new phone camera - unfortunately the cats are hiding today, so it’s just a few from the garden. No real improvement to the portrait algorithm that I can see, but the new hardware lenses are nice and crisp.

#BalconyGarden #BalkonGarten

A fig tree is carrying many ripe brown figs and a couple of green unripe ones in a sheltered corner of a balcony garden in the full sun.

A broad-leafed Japanese maple in a pot in a balcony garden shows a range of colours from new bright green to pink new leaves and autumn red old leaves. Yes, it’s making new leaves at the wrong end of the year.

Many little rough-skinned unripe green yuzu fruit are nestled on a branch amongst dusty leaves and absolutely murderous spikes. The courtyard building’s window behind the balcony is bright in the afternoon sun.

September bouquet 💐 ✨️ #silentsunday #flowers #balconygarden #bloomscroll

Even if you only have a small space - grow a fig in a pot. Nom!

Johnny’s not impressed though.

#CatsOfMastodon #Garden #BalconyGarden

A small square bowl on a handmade coaster holds a number of small brown-skinned figs that have been halved. Below the bent knee under the silver blanket, a large ginger long haired cat sleeps, ignoring this delicacy.

Cultivating joy where I can find it. #balconygarden #sedum #nasturtium #grasses

I went to a rare plants event in Fuchū on the weekend and picked up this very cool Billbergia ‘Obi-Wan’.

The opposite hybrid (where the other variety is the pollen donor) is called ‘Darth Vader’.

Do they fight like betta fish if you put them next to each other? 🤔

I also got a new pinguicula to replace the one I killed earlier this year 😅

#bromeliad #billbergia #pinguicula #carnivorousplants #balconygarden #plants

Silverberry (ölweide - eleagnus) harvest - two of the three different edible sorts carried this year despite starting the year as baby plants. Next year should be better with ‘established’ plants.

Their berry taste is quite different (a bit sour but good so), and have a massive seed, which you can eat, but I wouldn’t want to process into a jam. So, experimenting with a juice/syrup thing.

#EatWhatYouGrow #EdibleGarden #BalconyGarden #BalkonGarten #gardening

#balconygarden

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