Oops...

It turns out we had a couple seed packets hiding in a plastic bag, and we can barely stand on the balcony because of all the pots we have... and we also have some rosemary and strawberry plants to be transferred to a larger container. The strawberry plant we bought about 10 days ago, and due to weather conditions involving strong winds I've not dared transplant it yet... but despite being in a tiny little pot it's growing like nobody's business, and now it even has a runner! I'll have to see how I can sort everything out, my guess is I'm going to use yet another window box on a metal frame so I can fit some of the small pots underneath...

Tomorrow's going to be an interesting gardening day - weather permitting. Otherwise, it'll be another fight-with-your-candy-coloured-crochet-hook day! (The hungrier I am while crochetting, the more I realise why the hook is "candy colour"...)

...and carrots!

Well, something in the garden I actually enjoy eating!

We planted these from seed a couple of months ago, in a window box. Read lots about planting carrots in a container, but not enough obviously. I scattered the seeds all over the place, and for some reason they have only grown right in the middle of the box! Everyone talks about thinning them out, though I feel sorry for the carrots 'cause we only have seven! Thinking of just leaving them there and seeing what Nature does...

 Next time, carrots and mustard are going to be planted individually, no matter how many seeds and how little space we have. That's what we did with the broccoli, more on that later....

They're so pretty... :)

The onions are giving signs of life...

Or at least one of them is! I wasn't expecting it that soon, but then again, it's the first time I've ever planted onions. With the onions we spread the seeds nicely just where they should be - in a container, about 10 cms apart. Not all the onion seeds fitted in the container, and it's not like we can fit many more containers on our balcony! We'll see how many come out, and when we can plant the next batch.

Parsley's back!

About a month after the first parsley seedlings died (too hot, maybe? But why did they germinate?) there's one little seedling coming through again! I tried to take a photo of it but it's still too small and it's just a green blob, but hopefully now it's cooler it'll live and I'll be able to post it when it's bigger! Now that's a surprise I wasn't expecting! :)

Tomato plant

So, here it is...

Someone gave it to us when it was quite small,  and after putting it in a bigger pot it started to grow quite fast. It's not me who takes to edible plants, but I must admit I think tomato flowers are beautiful!

I think it's meant to be a cherry tomato, and hopefully one day it'll give us some fruit. I've done nothing but worry about it these days - there was one day I really thought it was the end of it, after a huge storm - I'm pretty sure part of the plant went missing! Anyway, it's growing nice green leaves and lovely yellow flowers, and I don't really know what's going to happen when the next storm comes. The only thing we've done is buy it a frame (intended for training morning glories, but who cares!). I've been looking up ways of strengthening the stems - the fan is not an option, the wind will do that already! Anyway, we'll just have to wait and see...

Ah, my beauty... (just ignore the 'slime' on that leaf above the flowers!)

Time for some crocheting

Now that I've finally finished knitting a pretty normal scarf, I'm sick of knitting needles and have decided to go for crocheting. Unfortunately, intelligent little me did not bring my amigurumi kit (hook and yarns) and amigurumi pattern book to Japan, partly cause of all the cursing and stressing over a hook which was too small for someone who can do pretty much nothing...

So I went down to the 100 yen store (again!) and got myself a 7 mm crochet hook. And now I just have to decide whether to start on amigurumi, socks, or blanket (which we already need!). Or then again I might just start reviewing my crochet skills and see if I actually get anywhere! Just wait and see...

My new "candy colour" (aka red) hook. Nice and thick so I can see what I'm doing!

Oh, mustard...

One of my main hobbies (not too good for my economy) is to drop by the 100 yen store and pick up... I wouldn't really say anything, since there are lots of weird and freaky things (no use trying to figure it out, either!), but we got a whole bunch of seeds (2 sachets for 105 yens). At that price it's worth a try, surely...

Amongst other things, we got parsley and mustard. Parsley - big failure. Mustard - real scary!

Here's the mustard 2 days after we planted it... I kid you not!

And here it is now, about... 7? weeks after planting it. There are actually a few strong plants literally pushing some of the smaller ones out of the container. We found quite a few seedlings just lying on their side, completely unearthed. Transplanted them into an empty bottle container with holes cut out for drainage, but not sure if they'll make it after last night's storm. In any case, lucky we only planted about half the sachet, and we most certainly will not have a lack of seeds and / or plants!