gardening under the midnight sun - an update from the balcony

 

I've been wanting to update on the balcony garden for a while now, because May has been a long time ago and we've been just waiting for the good weather to start and for our little seedlings to respond with growth.

This summer's been quite cold so far with a couple of sudden hot days thrown in, when temperatures rose into more summery heights. This Sunday - that's just finished on me with a headache from the heat and high pressure in the skies - was one of those sudden hot days. 

About an hour ago (it's a bit past midnight now) I've been standing barefooted on the cool concrete of the balcony to get away from the day's heat stuck inside the apartment. I watered the plants while trying to cool down myself - and wondered how strange it feels still, after two years of living here, not to have a dark night until about sometime in mid-August. 

The summer sun just dips below the horizon and hovers there for a couple of hours, glow visible, then rises again. Do the plants know that it's nighttime? How do they know? I barely know it, with all this light around. While testing if it was enough light for my flashless cameraphone, I decided to accompany my garden update with nighttime pictures of what we've managed to grow so far under this rather Nordic summer climate.

 

In the May post I had an exciting bunch of heirloom tomatoes starting life in little peat pots, soaking up as much springtime sun on the kitchen bench as was possible. They did so well, right up until we moved them outside mid-May. In a matter of a few days they went from perky little seedlings to pale shadows of themselves, lying down, fallen over. I think some kind of a microscopic beast found them and consumed them faster than we could think of how to help. So sadly, no tomatoes this year...

We planted out the roots of shop-bought living salads and herbs that we got for our lunches and dinners, like we did last year. The lettuces and parsley as expected have a good come-back rate, and this year the coriander does too.

Radish was sown into a big black pot this time, learning from last year's see-through pot experience - but still no radish bulbs produced! Just the lush green forest of huge radish leaves. Does the soil has the wrong nutrition content? Was I late with the sowing? No idea. But it looks like I'm going to make some radish leaf pesto again...

After last year's good experience with french green beans and chards, we sowed them again. They are doing okay, although still small and stunted by weeks of barely there 15 degrees and the cold rains. There is still a chance that they'll catch up and will make some dinner-worthy produce for us. 

I also planted up a big pot with sunflower seeds. They look to be affected by the weather too, but they should get to bloom still. We'll see.

 

In a month or so - or as soon as some real growth and blossoming is happening - I'm hoping to be back with sunny daytime pictures, showing off plants that look like it is summer here too. Fingers (and toes) crossed...!