Spring garden update

Over the last month, I've been slowly adding new plants to our balcony in preparation for spring. The new additions include baby spinach, spring onions, coriander, thyme, basil and flowers too. We're also growing parsley, mint, strawberries and one determined radicchio.

I'm a novice when it comes to gardening. When we left Wagga Wagga, my friend Sophie gave us a few starter plants, which has helped me build my confidence and work out where the sunniest spots are.

I've had a lot of help from friends. Dave recommended repotting our mint, to give it more room to grow and it's really taken off. And Sam's told me where to buy the strongest veggie seedlings in town (here if you're interested!).

I planted my basil a little early - it's still very cold in the mornings - so these guys will be staying inside for the next little while.

Aside from herbs and veggies, I'm growing flowers for the very first time. Here are my seaside daises :)

And now that the days are getting that tiny bit brighter and warmer, I'm getting back into the habit of earthing down after a day's work.

A very beautiful plant book

I've been visiting Indoor Green, Living with Plants at my local bookstore for weeks now, and I have a feeling it's going to come home with me very soon.

Written by Bree Claffley (who also owns the beautiful Melbourne homewares store Mr Kitly) it features interviews with indoor plant lovers from around the world and photographs of their homes. Especially useful to a novice like me is the guide to common (and elusive) house plants and how to care for them that's at the back of the book.

Since we moved, I've had some success with a balcony garden and I'm slowly starting to add a few plants inside our apartment. So far we have a few cacti and a Monstera fruit salad plant that just keeps sprouting new leaves. One day I'd love to have a plant in every room of the house - just like Dev in Master of None :)

Photos from the book by Lauren Bamford.

Earthing down

I've graduated from succulents, and it's exciting. I never thought I'd write about gardening but here goes.

When Tony and I moved to Canberra, our friends Sophie and Tim gave us three plants for our new apartment. On moving day, nothing felt nicer than putting them out on the balcony. The place immediately felt a little more lived in.

We had a tiny tomato plant, a strawberry plant and some herbs (thyme and basil) and have since added parsley, coriander, a fruit salad plant (!) and some mint. Everything is growing really happily and we've been able to cook with things too. Our tomato plant is like a beanstalk, it's huge and new tomatoes appear every day, which is super exciting.

So far having a few edible pot plants has been manageable and really encouraging too. I love tending to them as soon as I come home from work. It's lovely to be outside for a little while and notice what's changed. My friend Sophie calls this earthing down.

Next on my list is a dwarf lemon tree. We bought one right after we got engaged a few years ago, but couldn't work out who was doing what, so it died!