Gardening in the Grove

What do you do on a chilly, rainy day? You garden in the balcony grove, of course!

I started off with the intention of repotting my jade plant (who lives inside).

Jade in her new pot

She has lots of new growth all over! I'm excited.

Then I planted a Holly berry I picked up the other day on a walk. I had put out the intention that I wanted to add Holly to the grove a few months back. I normally never see it around on my walks ...that day I encountered it twice! I felt it was a sign.

I also planted a little pinecone I had picked up on a walk with the intention to plant. I think it's blue spruce (they are native to the area), but am not certain. I will check my tree books.

Pinecone in the left, Holly in the right. Yes, that's an old Tupperware :)

If you've ever wanted to know what the nut inside an acorn looks like, it's this:

I had one inside that had cracked open so I checked it out.

I also dug in to check on one of the acorns I had planted in the fall. The cap was off (by itself, I left them intact), and it had juuuuust cracked open and I saw a little white bit peeking out! Hooray! I was worried. Now I feel better and hopeful that I will have oak trees soon. :D

This week I re-arranged this end a bit, which needed done. The statues are now scattered throughout the grove rather than all on top of the a/c box, Yuan's salad box was repaired and moved into the Radio Flyer wagon, and storage was split so that empty pots n' stuff are in the wagon and the miscellaneous other things are in the bicycle basket on top of the a/c.

After I had done all my planting, I took the rest of my red cedar mulch from the bag I had been using for two or three years, and I gave it to Emmy Sr., one of Emmy the Elm Tree's parents down on the sidewalk. There was only enough to make a thin berm around them, but hopefully it helps. Where her parents are, it's just bare dirt and dogs pee and poop there a lot. I had also put some of the seed balls near them, but I want to help them out as much as I can. <3