Flowers and things...

One of the things I was first attracted to in this apartment was the huge balcony area.  Do I call it a patio if it isn't on the ground floor? Yet it is tile and has a patio "feel".  I can't really call it a deck (as I typically would call an outside congregating area) as it isn't made out of lumber or something that looks it.  So it has taken me awhile to get comfortable with what to call it, and I'm sticking with "patio".  

Over the summer, from my first visit to the plant store in April, I've been planting, nurturing, pruning, digging up dead plants (a succession of petunias just have not liked ANYTHING I did), replanting, and watering, watering, watering. (And hoping someone was remembering to water while I was gone for six weeks--and yes, there were some dead things when I got back.  The miracle was that some were alive.)  

Two weeks ago, we got our first tomato, and there are several more on the two plants.  Within the next couple of days I'll be picking the green ones and letting them ripen indoors as we are scheduled to commence freezing temperatures.   (By the way, there is a small bird next to the planter that sought refuge on our patio.)

 I've brought in the lemon tree (covered with blossoms and a few small lemons!), the peppermint,

the basil, a geranium, and a lavender plant.  Oh, the fragrances!  

 But our apartment just isn't large enough for the coleus plants.

 And apparently, whatever I've done that the petunias did not like, the coleus plants DID like.

(That's just one plant in that pot)

Not too bad for my first year of container gardening in China!

Now I can hardly wait for next spring to use what I've learned this year.