It was a good growing season for the hypertufa troughs. Many of the plants are now 3-4 years old and are well established. I dare not fuss with them and am always amazed at what pops up every spring. I’ve been watering them weekly, while I wait for the winter freeze up.

We have had an amazing fall. No serious snow yet. It’s also noticeably drier. Alpines in the mountains would already be snuggled under a layer of snow and frozen up for the year. I’ve moved the troughs to a corner of the balcony where they are out of the direct sun but open to the elements, both wind and snow. It’s important to try to keep the troughs frozen up once winter settles in.

A couple of the troughs are becoming a little fragile. Corners and edges softening up a bit – I think that is because they were not quite cured properly when they were built. Putting the troughs on castors helps move them easily, but also makes it easy to play bumper cars when moving them. I could be more careful.

I’ve planted a few tiny plants into the rock this year, but am pretty sure they won’t live to greet the spring. Always worth a try though. I’m hitting the books to start making my list for next spring – as the troughs fill up, I get a bit more selective about new additions.

These photos help remind me about the textures, shapes and colours I’m working with and where the empty spots are. Still room for a few more – plants that is, not troughs.

It’s been a great summer for the bamboo. Not only has it continued to grow, but it has remained bright green, pest-free and is even starting to sprout new sturdy shoots. The two containers have been tucked out of the wind and been mostly in the shade for the entire growing season. The sun has started to track a little lower as we head out of summer, so the bamboo plant at the front is now starting to get some sun.

When I see new shoots, I always think of the Mythbusters. But it also makes me think about how I’m another year closer to the clay pots exploding – there are serious rootball growing here. I’ve been putting off transplanting because although the containers are pretty heavy I can still lift them and move them back into the apartment. Of course, when they are out on the balcony, they are on rollers. So, just starting to think about how I’ll be wrestling these back into the apartment when temperatures start to drop. But no action required yet.

I’ve noticed that it’s getting harder to find terracotta containers here for the balcony garden. Curious.

The two largest nurseries in the city don’t seem to carry them any more. The nursery where I purchased my large terracotta troughs last year (that I’m using for vegetable gardening), just cleared out all of their stock. What’s going on?

My balcony containers are hypertufa, cement, granite and terracotta. I like the warm feel of terracotta. I like how it absorbs moisture. I like it’s colour and texture. I like that it gets heavy when it’s been watered. I like that you have to be careful with it and deal with it before the big freeze hits in the fall. To me, a terracotta pot is an intrinsic part of gardening.

Two of the small, local run nurseries that I frequent still have a bit of stock. So I scored two more large troughs to expand the vegetable garden. Looks like they might be my last.

And these three beauties pictured below were part of a recent blow-out sale at another nursery. I think they had been in the store a while, full of dust and filled with plastic plants. But, behind the grime was the beauty of clay. These pots have a gorgeous shape and a rough, textured finish. They are ready for real soil, plants and water.

A perfect celery pot don’t you think.

This year there are three ponds in carved stone bowls in the balcony garden.

I’ve grown a number of different aquatic plants through the years, but this year I’m keeping things simple. I’m floating Azolla carliniana (fairy moss) and Salvinia natans (a pretty water fern) in the ponds but really, 2011 is going to be the year of the pond comet. Pond comets are a type of gold fish. They are inexpensive to buy – the more the merrier – and are easy to look after.

So if you have been thinking about adding a water feature to your balcony garden, don’t hesitate to jump in, select a nice container and just add fish.

It’s starting to cool down here, leaves are turning yellow and there is the occasional frost warning. So I’m starting to think about closing down parts of the balcony garden – especially the ponds.

One gardener in the ‘hood did a serious clean up of their balcony garden on Saturday morning – plants, pots and planters et al. But not to worry, I look out onto a pretty active back alley. In the time it took to snap the first view from above and then go down to the parkade to shoot the close up – about 5 minutes – an intrepid gardener had snapped up the pots and the purple flowers. And by noon today, the rest of the materials were gone.

This garden, or at least all of the fixings, will live on.

Gardening Gone Wild has invited bloggers to showcase water in their gardens. I’ve always had a water garden on the balcony, often including a school of pond comets. Container ponds are pretty easy to set up. They attract birds, bees and wasps and are a refreshing change from potted plants. I’ve had the good fortune to find four beautiful stone containers that I’ve used for the last couple of years, but have also had great success planting a pond in a glazed ceramic pot.  

Floating fern (salvinia natans), water hyacinths (eichornia crassipes), water grass (hygroryza aristata) and water clover (marsilea mutica) are the plants of choice this year in the ponds. The floating ferns are easy to grow, spread quickly, provide shade and prevent algae by using nutrients from the water. The water grass is a new discovery. Seems to be a slow grower, but looks pretty cool. The water clover (below) is tough and has grown into a strong, healthy plant that continues to be happy even with the heavy winds and cooler nights that we have been having lately – it might get to come to the office over the winter. 

The water volume is relatively small and the water level in each pond goes down about an inch each week because it is so dry here. But topping up the water gives me the chance to check out the plants regularly, do a little clean up as needed and thin out the growth. No pumps, no mosquitoes and no problems this year.

Started to move containers around today and remembered that most are heavy and ackward to lift. Checked out the local nursery in search of strong platforms with wheels and hit the jackpot. Bought five inexpensive round wood ones and a larger metal version. The wood planters have four casters, the metal version has a five caster set. They are nice and low to the ground; functional and unobtrusive. The wood platforms are perfect for the tufa troughs, but not quite strong enough for the cement troughs. Neither are strong enough for my new stone bowls, so I’ll continue to stack up bricks to add height to the pond set up.

These stone bowls are carved out of a beautiful creamy granite that has a sparkle to it. Picked them up at a store in Inglewood where they have decided to no longer bring more in because they are so heavy.They will be perfect for small balcony ponds.

As I’ve been having trouble wintering over perennials in my horse trough I decided to use mint as a test plant last year. I reasoned if mint (a hardy, woody, Zone 2 variety) didn’t make it through the winter, there wasn’t much point in continuing to try to winter over the plants I love to grow. To my surprise, the mint did not make it – so the horse trough is now officially gone from the balcony. (It went to a good, new home.)

The horse trough was a great idea. If you consider using one on your balcony as a garden container, line it with one and a half inch foam insulation before you fill it. I had a healthy layer of landscape bark in the bottom for drainage. I placed a layer of landscape fabric on top of the bark and then filled the trough with a soil-less mix. Over the years, new soil was added as I emptied containers and planted new favourites. A bag of well rotted manure was occasionally dug in during fall clean up to supplement the top soil. After seven years, the trough was still in great shape with no water retention problems or rusting. I opened the drain every September to make sure there was no residual moisture before freeze-up. Looking for a large container for your balcony garden? Try a horse trough.