Acorn Experiment no. 2

I've seen so many nice picture on Instagram and Pinterest of people making acorns grow at home, and I always found it looks rather decorative, so back in autumn, when we were out gathering acorns anyway I kept a few for my next plant experiment.

These babies were in water for quite a while. Eventually it looked like all of them would make it, but due to our holiday abroad, only the three with the longest roots made it alive into 2019. Still, I was so happy to come home and find one of them with leaves. I actually don't know if it is possible to transfer them to soil. For the moment they are just brightening up our kitchen with a little touch of spring. And one still hasn't sprouted.

If they grow big, they can only stay with us for a certain amount of time, as my love for planting trees already takes up a fair amount of space in our apartment. I though about bonsai, but we also talked about planting them somewhere in nature or in the city. Let's see what happens.

Zucchini

As part of our balcony garden, we also planted zucchini this year. It was not really because of the zucchini itself, if so we would have been terribly disappointed as we only managed to harvest one zucchini throughout the season. But we planted them so we could get to eat the tasty zucchini flowers because they are hard to come by here in Berlin, even at the farmers market.

And we had many flowers during June and July and they were as decorative as they were delicious. I love them filled with a ricotta mix, dipped in batter, and deep fried. It is a great summer dish. They certainly brightened up both our balcony and our dinner table this summer and perhaps they will be part of the seeds in next years balcony pot mixture.

Our balcony pots are looking rather sad right now that fall has really taken over, but there is still the occasional flower. Today we put some chestnuts in the soil so if we are lucky one of them will sprout sometime during the next couple of months.

Green Is the Season

Back in May, we planted some seeds. These seeds has now grown into strong, vivid green plants with summery flowers and tasty treats.

I really enjoy taking care of these plants and see them grow a little more each day. It is so nice to have a little garden to nurture and something green when living in the city. The added bonus is the exotic ladybird that I found among the leaves one morning and the many bumble bees who visit us everyday single day.

Balcony

Our balcony is looking really good at the moment. We have some new additions to the plants that made it through the long, cold winter. We've bought lavender and strawberries while picking up some extra soil for our flower boxes. I've had my share of herbs. Even though they are practical to have around we ended up having so many lice in them three years ago. It was so much work to try and get rid of them I am not sure it was worth the trouble considered what we got out of them.

So this year, we have once again used the flower boxes to make a little meadow. Last week, I put the seeds in the soil and thanks to the good weather conditions there is already lots of little green sprouts popping up. I post some pictures later, when they have made it beyond the baby step.

Repotting Again Again

It is repotting season again and the lemon grew so fast in the past 6 months it really needed a new pot in order to thrive and grow even stronger. I finally managed to go and get hold of a new pot at the beautiful shop Blume & Raum at Paul-Linke Ufer. Of cause I couldn't help myself and in addition to getting a new pot I also added a couple of plant to our collection.

It just so happened that on the same day they had installed a card reader and I was the first customer ever to use it. I was rewarded this beautiful red/yellow tulip as a token for the new era of the shop. It spend a week on the kitchen table before it started looking too sad to keep.

Next plant project is the balcony.

Lemon

My little lemon baby has turned 2 this year, and she is still happy and full of life. If she keeps growing with the same speed she might be double the size next year. 

There is something special about the kind of plant, where you planted the seed yourself, took care of it and saw it grow. The lemon is definitely one of my favourite plants amongst the one we have and it is funny to think, that once it was just a lemon in our fridge. 

I was recently told that lemons like this never bear fruits, but if this is true I hope it will at least have some flowers so we can enjoy a nice lemony smell in the kitchen. Though if it continues to grow like this we might have to relocate it to elsewhere in the apartment.  

Green Balcony

While I was in Denmark, this happened at the balcony. Our wild flower meadow grew from zero to a very green and bushy flower bed. The fig also had another growing spurt and now have 4 green figs. The first fig - that came early - we ate back in June. It was sweet and juicy, so I look forward to the next batch is ripe. While I am waiting, I am still enjoying strawberry season, that is sadly soon coming to an end.

The Fig Tree

The fig is no longer stuck inside. Now it has been enjoying the evening sun on the balcony for the past month.

Our Little Green Friends

Right now, our home is a bit in a state of chaos. Doing some house renovation, that I can't wait to be over with. Meanwhile, I take comfort in all our plants which are thriving at the moment.