Salty Sam’s Fun Blog for Children
Number 490
Balcony Gardening
Hello Everyone
lf you would like to have a garden but you only have a balcony, you still have space to grow things.
The most important thing to think about with growing things on a balcony is the safety aspect.
Nothing must fall off or blow away. Balconies can be very windy places especially when they are high up. You must not put too much weight on a balcony.
You also don’t want to be dripping dirty water onto your downstairs neighbours’ windows!
You must also make sure you don’t overload your balcony with heavy items.
Plastic pots are better than terracotta because they are frost proof and the compost inside them doesn’t dry out as quickly. They are also lighter.
You might want to have some screening up along the front of the balcony. lf it is a roll of split bamboo canes, trellis or light net it won’t block light coming into your room too much. A screen will give you more privacy, protect you a little from strong winds and stop your toys from rolling off the balcony, which is really annoying.
A screen may also stop little pets from tumbling off your balcony which is a very important thing to consider!
Plants can be very tough and adaptable. They can withstand a certain amount of wind, frost, drought and heat. But you have to choose ones that will suit your situation.
A shaded, north-facing balcony will have different growing conditions from a sunny, south-facing one for example. You balcony might be low and sheltered or high and exposed.
You can recycle household items or empty food containers to raise plants and save money. lf you use pallet wood, it will already be treated to be left outside; but make sure there are no splinters sticking out on the edges.
Succulents are good plants to grow in containers outside. They have a surprisingly large range of colours.
Plants that are usually good to grow near the sea that have tough leaves are plants to consider growing on a windy balcony. Flowers with delicate petals will not do so well.
There are lots of plant containers that can be stacked up into towers or walls that you can grow flowers in to tumble down and cover the pots. This will increase your growing space.
You can also use them to grow things to eat.
You can grow herbs, salad leaves and of course, strawberries.
lf you have room for quite large containers you can put pot plants in them and if one plant is not doing so well, you can easily pull it out and insert another one.
lf you don’t have a balcony but you still want to grow things, there are some really big plants that you can have as house plants. Some are so big, they look like miniature trees!
lt is a good idea to find out the needs of a house plant before you buy it. Will it do well in the place you want to put it? Some plants love full sun and others prefer a shadier place.
Some need quite a lot of water and some don’t. They will probably have different needs in the winter from the summer.
lf you have cats, they will chew plants, so check what you want to buy will no be poisonous for them.
Yuccas can be too sharp if you have small children around.
There are different types of palms and ficus that grow to a good size.
Swiss cheese plant has interestingly-shaped leaves. Rubber plants grow really tall and jade plants can grow to a big size too over a long time.
Umbrella plants and castor oil plants have lovely-shaped leaves.
Aspidistras are really easy to grow.
Dracaenas look very tropical and can have lovely striped leaves.
A rattlesnake plant has lovely markings on its leaves.
lf you put a large plant on the floor, make sure you don’t knock it over with a vacuum cleaner or something like that.
You could grow a banana tree indoors.
You could grow a lemon tree or pomegranate tree by planting a pip.
lf you want to grow a pomegranate tree, take a few seeds from inside a fruit and rub the outer flesh off by rubbing into a piece of kitchen towel.
Plant the seeds in potting compost, water and keep the pot somewhere really warm.
Don’t let the seedlings dry out.
lf you want to put plants into your home to help purify the air, choose from bamboo palm, weeping fig, rhapsis palm, rubber plant, dwarf date palm, ivy, peace lily, spider plant, snake plant.
lf you live in a city, that is something that you might really like to do for your health.
lf you like my blog, please support it by telling all your friends and followers about it.
Thank you!
And see you again next Fun Friday!
Love and kisses
Salty Sam
www.christina-sinclair.com
Bill and Bob’s Joke of the Week
Bob: What do you call a psychic gnome who has escaped from prison?
Bill: l don’t know, tell me.
Bob: A small medium at large!
Salty Sam © Christina Sinclair 2015
Unauthorized use and/or duplication of material from this blog without express and written permission from this blog’s author and owner is strictly prohibited.
Links may be used to www.christina-sinclair.com
Picture Gallery
Greening the grey
Strawberry tower
If plants are grown on the outside of a balcony,
they need to be fixed in place securely
Pollinators will visit your flowers even if you are high up
THE SALTY SAM NEWS DESK
This week, we have another of Bill and Bob’s general knowledge quizzes for you.
They have called it their summer quiz because the answers all start with the letters that spell out the word ‘summer’.
The answers are all countries.
S – Positioned between Norway and Finland
U – The capital city is Kiev
M – The Chihuahua, the smallest dog in the world, is named after one of its states
M – It had a vast empire in Asia in the 13th century
E – This country’s name means ‘Republic of the Equator’ and it is positioned on the equator along with Colombia and Brazil
R – Transylvania is located here
*********************
TO ADVERTISE ON THIS BLOG
PLEASE CONTACT:
christina.sinclair.ads@aol.co.uk
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Quick Quiz
These are places to go for people don’t have their own garden.
Can you work out what they are?
- a _ _ _ _ _ _ _ t
- p _ _ k
- c _ _ _ _ _ y p _ _ _ _ c f _ _ _ _ _ _ _ s
- c _ _ _ _ _ _ _ y g _ _ _ _ n
- c _ _ _ _ _ _ _ y o _ _ _ _ _ d
- g _ _ _ _ _ _ _ a g _ _ _ _ _ _ _ g
- s _ _ _ _ l g _ _ _ _ n
lt’s the Weekend!
HOW TO MAKE A WlNDOW BOX FOR A 12” DOLL
This window box is so pretty. It could be put on a balcony or in a garden.
It is easy to make, but looks very effective.
The colours used to make the blooms are white, pale blue, peach, pale yellow and a pink. This gives a very summery, pastel effect but you could use much stronger and brighter colours if you wanted to.
You could use just shades of pink with white.
First find a suitable bottle top to use.
Draw around the top to get the size of it on some card.
Colour this shape in in black or dark brown to get an earth colour.
Cut a tiny amount of card off the edges so that the oval or circle of card can slip down some way into the bottle top.
Then just make some plants and arrange them on the soil.
This is how you make the plants:-
Tie a knot into the end of a length of green yarn and sew into that to get you started with one loop.
Then just sew into the yarn again and again so that you get a small, loopy, flattish ball of green yarn.
Put French knot flowers into the green yarn to create a few blooms by winding the yarn twice around your needle
Please note that the material on this blog is for personal use and for use in classrooms only.
It is a copyright infringement and, therefore, illegal under international law to sell items made with these patterns.
Use of the toys and projects is at your own risk.
©Christina Sinclair Designs 2015
Answers to the News Desk Quiz
Sweden
Ukraine
Mexico
Mongolia
Ecuador
Romania
Quick Quiz Answers
- allotment
- park
- country public footpaths
- community garden
- community orchard
- guerrilla gardening
- school garden
Embroidery Stitches
