Gardening on a Balcony
Love and light and compost
Welcome to my blog-of-sorts—which likely will grow into more of a web serial—at any rate, I am thrilled that you are here. My plan is every week or two to add a new section to this page divulging tips, tricks, and secrets I've acquired over the years; listing, describing, and posting photos of roses I have loved; chronicling my trials, travails, and triumphs as I undertake gardening in containers on a balcony in the East Bay (the Left Coast); in addition to simply sharing my obsession and history with roses. (And, no doubt, lavenders, orchids, and my current fascination with clivia will also get a sliver of real estate.) So, grab a hot tea-or iced as the case may be-and your mobile device, and wander with me out to relax in your garden as I relate my latest addition to what I hope will become a delightful and surprisingly constructive compilation of anecdotes.
Going Dirtless: A clean break March 2017Well, I finally did it; I made the break from using any dirt in my containers. I mixed my first batch of dirtless soil, and my two brand new roses from Heirloom Roses—along with a lavender who hasn't been very happy since coming home with me—are my proverbial Guinea pigs.
Since attending my first rose workshops in 2003 at It's a Jungle (a beloved haunt up until its owners retired in 2012), I've known roses do not do well plopped into dirt; their soil must have things added and be balanced and fussed over— if planting in the ground, the hole should be a good 2'x2' to ensure the roots will have plenty of room for growth in their optimal soil. And for my container roses (I love to have roses blooming around me everywhere!) I discovered the Natural Gardener's own Ladybug brand Rose Magic soil blend (which is awesome, but still I felt compelled to further amend). My very favorite place in Austin to find new lavenders and herbs—and to pet donkeys after wandering through the butterfly garden—is John Dromgoole's The Natural Gardener. I have relied on cobbled-together advice collected from others: pH, moisture retention, drainage, mulch, fertilizers, compost, companion plants, blah, blah, blah—mostly hand-waving with snippets of (much appreciated) sciency stuff, but basically distilled down to "tried and true, works for me." And for the most part my roses have thrived on that aggregation of advice—admittedly, some much more so than others.
A while back, I came across a lengthy but thought-provoking post by Al Tapla about container gardening on GardenWeb (in the houzz.com forums). Finally, advice backed up by science that put issues I have experienced with potted plants into perspective and a framework that made sense, AND provided logical solutions...honestly, though I'm convinced, I am still a bit weird about not using any dirt; there is a part of me that feels impelled to water them every morning.
