During our first year in the apartment, I was incredibly excited to start my gardening journey. Having always loved flowers and grown up surrounded by them, I was also eager to grow vegetables and herbs. I initially planted seedlings but later felt I needed more immediate colour and beauty. So, later in the spring, I visited Heeman's to pick out some bright and beautiful annual flowers I had never seen before. This instantly filled the garden box, and I was so happy.
The garden box and terracotta pots on our deck.
As fall approached, I noticed that my vegetables were quite small, likely due to not leaving enough space. Despite this, I thoroughly enjoyed exploring my creativity in the garden. I also found it fun to begin the cleanup on those cool autumn days. Although it was a bit sad, I made a final bouquet of all the bright flowers and brought out some pumpkins. By the end of September, I was excited to start tidying up the garden and embrace the cooler, cozier days, ready to dream about the next gardening season!
The deck and flowers in autumn - those pumkins produced the best pumkin soup I have ever made!
My second year with the garden was a bit less successful, as I started everything from seed. This led to a lot of trial and error and learning experiences! On a positive note, I expanded the garden to a plot beside the deck, with our landlord’s approval. I was thrilled about this, so I planted all the flowers in that new plot and kept the vegetables in the garden box on the deck. However, I missed having flowers and colour on the deck and planted my tomatoes too close to the front edge, which limited sunlight for the other vegetables and herbs. This happened because I didn’t label my seedlings—a rookie mistake I won't make again! Despite this, I enjoyed a large harvest of cherry tomatoes, although the squirrels managed to eat almost everything else. For the flowers, I did get a few beautiful blooms, but since I planted mostly perennials, I'll have to wait another year or two to fully appreciate their beauty.
The seedlings and vegetables & flowers from our garden in our second summer at the apartment.
Two perennial flowers from my garden were particularly successful, and I’d love to have more of them. One is Malva Moschata, also known as Musk Mallow. This light pink flower, a close relative of the hollyhock, is a native British wildflower that can be grown from seed in either autumn or spring. Since I want to increase the number of these flowers in my garden, I decided to harvest the seed pods once the flowers had dried up. This flower produces small, dark seeds, and I’m hopeful that they will thrive in the upcoming spring and summer! My mom gave me this flower as an offshoot from her own garden.
The other successful flower from my garden this year was Lychnis Coronaria, also known as Rose Campion. It features bright pink blooms with sage-colored stems and leaves. These seeds should be planted in the fall, as they require about 3-4 weeks of moist, cold conditions to germinate for the next season. I found this flower on a roadside flower sale, driving through the countryside to my brothers house.
Extracting seeds for more flowers!
You can do this with nearly all flowers that produce seed pods. It is cost-effective and exciting to see the results! Although it does take a little more patience.
As we transition from late summer to early fall, we're excited to be moving into a new apartment with a backyard. It’s the perfect time to transplant the flowers I planted earlier this spring, giving them a chance to settle in before the colder weather arrives. It will also be a great space to plant any of the seeds I have harvested this year, as well as some new varieties in the spring. We are really looking forward to this new chapter and making the most of our new space!
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