So after 2+ years of living in this apartment, I’ve decided to spruce up my balcony with some gardening.

My balcony isn’t anything special; it’s rather small, maybe 12′ x 4′, but it does overlook Hollywood Blvd and has a great view of the hills, the Hollywood sign, Griffith Observatory, palm trees and blue skies.  However, the bottom quarter of that view is of street lights and the Pier 1 across the street.  Not really pleasant to look at so here’s my solution:

Plants, plants, and more plants!  I was in Home Depot over the weekend and got a flower box, some dirt, and ranunculus bulbs.  Oddly, neither Home Depot or the OSH across the street had brackets for hanging a flower box over a balcony wall.  I would think it would be a common item, but I had to go as far as to describe exactly what it was I was looking for to a bewildered Home Depot employee.  No matter, they were easy enough to find online.

I still have to plan out the look I’m going for, but I figured I’ll hang 4 or 5 flower boxes to cover the length of the balcony and then have other potted plants scattered about.  Ross has some inexpensive and creative metal-frame sculptures designed to hold flower pots in a garden setting that would work nicely to stack different sized pots.  Speaking of inexpensive, the flower box I bought at Home Depot was about $8 and it was the cheapest one they had.  Today, I stopped by the 99 Cent Only Store and found great flower boxes and large flower pots for just 99 cents each!  Actually, they were 99.99 cents.  Because of the recession, the 99 Cent Store has raised their prices and added on the point 99.  It’s still a great deal though and I even found bulbs for just 99.99 cents.  The bulbs I had bought at Home Depot earlier were $4!

I’ll post some pictures soon, but here’s what I’ve planted:

• Ranunculus
• Crocosmia (Emberglow)
• Triteleia (Queen Fabiola)
• Ismene (Peruvian Daffodil or Spider Lily)

I also have some sparaxis (harlequin flowers) and freesia bulbs, but I need to get more dirt for them.  I’m really looking forward to the Ismene because it supposedly has a lovely, strong fragrance, and so does freesia.  The ranunculus, crocosmia, and triteleia will make excellent cut flowers.  I’ve always loved ranunculus since the first time I saw them at a local Farmer’s Market.  They come in so many great colors and look like thick, papery roses yet they are so hardy and long-lasting.

I need to incorporate some foliage into the mix, and maybe some cactus.  So many choices available, it’s so hard to decide!

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