I didn’t do a big gardening plan this spring because we had a three week holiday planned in April/May and I didn’t want to have things starting up right as I was leaving for a few weeks, so we were a bit slow.

Below you can see my herb garden for now, which I feel looks sad and lonely on our balcony. We still have so much space but not many containers and Kay is picky about what we use as a container. Thrifty eco, used containers are just not very Swiss. Sigh.

On the left we have our bamboo which is finally growing some this year. In the left big trough we have a rose bush, some flower seeds and some summer squash that I really wanted to try this year. In the pots I have raspberries, tomatoes, basil (green and red variants!), parsley and cilantro from seed because you cannot buy the plants here.

On the other side of the balcony is our lounge set and more bamboo behind and in the trough on the right we have clematis, lavender and some climbing roses which are new. On the ground to the right we have mint, chives and sage.

Back by the house I have some pots with flowers and one with oregano and thyme, although the thyme is already almost dead. I’m not sure if it’s unhappy because of the mulch or too much sun earlier or too much water. Who knows! I hope it makes a comeback.

I had some tips from some bees about how to prune my tomatoes. I never knew what to do with them. I feel like such a garden noobie, but I’m trying to do better every year when I learn things!

I took the cuttings from these plants and planted the suckers in other pots to try and propagate them – something else I’ve never tried before now!

Summer squash is coming in strong now, although I need to research what I should be doing for it.

The red basil is awesome! I’m happy it’s doing well for now. A friend told me a secret recipe for pesticide by infusing peppers and water and spraying on the basil often.

Cilantro. So excited not to have to pay 2CHF a bunch for some for tacos and Tex Mex!

The sage is a little sad here so I’m taking it out from the open area to cover it under the balcony so it gets less rain. I will water it a bit less too and see how it does.

The clematis flowers all dropped off after I planted them, but I really hope they do a lot of growing next year. The neighbors have it on the other side of the fence and it just seems like theirs just took off.

The lavender is liking the sunny area so far.

Here are my little tomato cuttings. I also had some bigger ones that were older and they seem to be doing better than these, but I’m still keeping an eye on these. It would be great to have more tomato plants for free! 🙂

Have you learned some helpful gardening tips this year?