I have mentioned our balcony on here a couple of times before in different posts. I was planning on starting regular posts about our balcony and the garden we have created as it has grown from 3 plants when we first moved into now having a variety of plants and colour. Mr StitchNSew aka Womble is the gardener in our house but I’m starting to take more of an interest about what happens out there. I am clueless about plants and how to take care of them, I thought you just tipped water over them and that was it they grow. By complete chance Womble decided he wanted to start a blog about our garden, so I helped him set up Womble’s Balcony Garden. Even though I only have to look out the window to see it all I’m enjoying reading his posts as he has a natural talent for writing. I have decided I’m still going to start writing regular posts about our balcony adventures, our topics might crossover, but our writing styles are different.
The balcony is north facing and is very functional. The design mimics our apartment in the form of a rectangle. It is covered on top by the floor above and has walls at either end. The size is roughly about 5m x 2m. Although it is a relatively small space the rectangle design allows you to make use of the space effectively as there are no odd angles or wasted space. I think of it is a small space but compared to other balconies in our development it is on the large side. Last week Sydney broke record for wettest year ever but we do get a nice amount of sun on the balcony when it isn’t cloudy or raining. They are building a new development in our street, we are hoping not to lose too much sun from that once it is complete.
With the balcony undercover it gives us a place to dry our clothes outside on a clothes airer. The airer is low profile and you can’t see it above our balcony railing. The airer is a big money saver as we don’t need to put things in the dryer, in fact I have never plugged in the dryer which came installed in our laundry. Having the clothes airer outside saves precious space inside the apartment. There are only a few longer items and dresses which don’t get hung on the airer, I have a spot inside for those on an over the door airer. All the sheets, towels, even lengths of fabric are dried outside. It does take a few days for things to dry and you do have to plan your washing but we have enough clothing and linen that we can afford the time. Some items do dry in a day if it is windy or it is hot but most things take a few days or more. I’m guilty of not checking if things are dry and just leaving them out for the normal week but I really shouldn’t so to prolong the life of our items in terms of exposure to light and heat.
In 2020 I wrote when we first got a couple of chairs for the balcony, we have since gotten a 3rd chair. We couldn’t get the same style as the chairs we had, it is heavier and therefor is harder to move about. I’ll admit it isn’t as comfortable as the other chairs either, I plan on making cushions to solve this problem. The chair is still functional at the moment for when we do have to use it.
In Storage Solutions for Apartments, I mentioned the Ikea cupboard we have at one end. The cupboard is part of the Kolbjorn range, in July we got an additional storage unit from the range which sits beside it. This time we chose an enclosed cupboard with shelving at the top. I now hang the washing basket off one side of the shelves using a S hook. Even with the mobility issues we both have the unit took no time to put together. The range is waterproof making them idle to use outside or around water. These units are great for balconies as they allow you to store the items you would normally store in a garden shed or garage, again freeing up precious space inside the apartment.
Our table is now covered in pot plants. In the last 16 months we haven’t eaten out there as much as when we first moved in which has allowed the pots to take over. We still use the table when needed as there is a small corner free. I want to start eating out there more as I used to enjoy it.
The other big thing on the balcony is our old BBQ which we turned into a raised garden pot last year. Womble has already written a post on this but I still plan on writing my own post in the future. I say we did it but it was really Womble who did all the work.
When we first moved I spent a lot of time out on the balcony but in the last 12 months or so I haven’t, I am starting to go out there more than just attending to the washing. At the moment my gardening skills only extend to pouring water on plants but I’m interested in learning and doing more. Sustainability and self-sufficiency is important to us both. We’ve grown tomatoes and strawberries. We aren’t herb fans but do have Rosemary. I’d like to look into what other edible plants we can grow. We plan on getting a worm farm so that we can reduce some of our household waste by putting in kitchen scraps and even our shredded paper. The worm tea and castings produced by the farm will be good for our plants too.
I’m looking forward to writing about our balcony adventures.
Cassiy
stitchnsewcreates 