There was a few issues with the place. Compact, nutrient stripped soil, not a lot of sun and neighbors can see onto it in a couple places. There is also a Maple tree in the center of the plot which takes up a lot of root space and every years releases thousands of seeds. There was an apple tree that was severely stunted and did not receive enough light to grow more then a foot each year and not enough to grow apples. The plot had been grown in with trailing arch angel,which thrived and looked nice so when we removed it we left it in a few select spots.
First solution was to begin compost mulching, or cold composting to replenish the soil. The scond solution was to train the rose bush through the maple tree inhibiting the growth of the maple tree. While training the rose through the maple tree i decided to utilize the very vigorous rose to block out the view of the balcony from the neighbors.
After about 6 months of working on the plot the owner babysat a friends dog who often used the garden as a bathroom. We may have removed the feces from the ground but the owner was still at odds with the idea of growing food in the garden because of the time the feces did sped on the surface. Because most of the garden is in shade and light shade lettuce was one of the plants i wanted to plant in it. I also think they are very decorative ground cover , along with tulips around the base of the maple tree.
A year later after moving in during the summer of 2009 someone in the co-op damaged the hose tap and the co-op decided to not fix the tap. I few times through out the summer i carried 30 or so gallon buckets of water from the kitchen faucet and dumped it into the garden. It was only enough to barely keep the garden alive during the dry period of that summer. So the images of that summer are not lush.
This year the owner is moving before summer. so we wont take pictures of it in its full majesty. During this early spring the plot is very lush and i will take pictures. When the owner moves most of the garden will also be relocated.
The fallowing photos are of summer 2009 when the garden did not receive the water it needed.
The prior 2 photos are of the vines that grow amongst the thicket. Neither i know the name of, both are fruiting but have not because of the location.
This is to the right of the maple tree, certainly when comparing with this years photos you will see that this is in very bad shape.
This is from the east looking west. The round little ground cover i do not know the name of.
The two previous photos are of the rose flowering while trained through the maple tree. I am sad that the only photos we got of it are when the garden wasnt at its full potential due to lack of water.
This is near the front center of the plot. In the bottom right there is corsican mint, that is not doing well and will be very babied this year. The goal was for it to take over the rocky area and the front of the garden near the wooden box.
This photo is to the left of the last one and looking north instead of down. That was actually a camera trick to make it look more lush by hiding the empty space.
The Red snap dragons. The first summer there were 3 varieties of snap dragons, the other two died and none of the seeds sprouted the next year, while this one survived the winter. None of its seeds sprouted last year my theory is not enough water, where as this yar there are about 5 new ones growing plus this one is on its third year.
I filled this pot with trailing archangel, it did not do much because of the lack of water.
Good old hardy Dianthus, doing much better this year. Sources online say that these are edible and have a mild clove flavour, ive eaten them but i do not remember flavour, i was still a smoker at the time though.
These red Dianthus came with the place. I transplanted them into their own pot which is much larger, the reason was that all that extra soil would hold moisture incase 2010 was another drought year for this garden. Those tiny unhealthy poppies managed to go to seed, sadly only two or three have re-sprouted this year.
The hanging baskets i put up. The right is spearmint and the left is Herb Robert and Trailing Archangel.
The fallowing are photos of The Urban Thicket in Febraury of 2010.
The poppies that self seeded last year. Those tulips have died.
Despite cutting the vine back mid summer last year it still managed to grow a couple feet above the thicket by the beggining of the next season.
During the wetter periods i like to plant herb robert along the side of the balcony. She doesnt eat it, i grow plenty for myself and I may as well not compost it until iveused it in all the spots i want, there is still plenty that was composted.
This was taken before i planted the herb robert and swept the deck.
I cant wait to upload a comparison photo of this shot, it loks pretty amaxing right now. The window that you can kind of see up in the top left is one of the views i was tryign to cut off, without infringing on their view of the city, just the balcony.
Two of the dianthus varieties theres at least one more if not two more.
this was the only spot in the plot i intentionally left the trailing archangel i wanted it to trail off the side of the plot. There is also a Honeysuckle in there that is meant to grow up along the fence where the apple tree stops.
The front to the right of the left pathway, this is a photo i took when i was happy that i had realized that the Snap dragon seeds started growing.
The front right of the garden this spot is primarily shade with maybe an hour of sun thought out the day.
Looking a little more north then the last photo.
The two previous photos are looking over the edge of the balcony, the top one is east of the bottom one. It is about a thirty foot drop.
This is looking west from the center of the plot.
This is on the other side of the sage plant in the previous photo the turned to face north.
This is looking north along the west wall, i was trying to only focus on the trailing archangel and the rasberry swirl dianthus growing out of the pot, the original picture was actually a little further out to the right side but was cropped for some reason.
A photo of the center. Remember February.
I was going for a bonzai look and there was a some complications where to do the cutting with this branch. Nonetheless i gave it some sort of disease by mis management and poor pruning.
Bleeding hearts grew and begun flowering in a month, much larger now.
The pots that were around the balcony. The owner gathered them up when she was out there cleaning one day.
I left some Digitalis in there because i know that if they do not fix the faucet this year digitalis can handle drought.
The right/ east side of the garden.
Yah this has really become quite lush, and maybe a little to much, especially once all those tips take off, but shes moving so she doesnt want me to bother pruning it (which should have been done in January).
The front right corner which is mostly shaded, accept at the beginning of the year before trees start growing leaves and such.
Thats it for now. Will be updating with more photos of early april in about a week.
Some photos from end of march early april. Will add comments later.
