Gardening with a black thumb

The term black thumb is not really an exaggeration when used to describe me. Somehow I am able to make the most hardy of plants die. I can just imagine my poor Gran shaking her head as she was a keen horticulturalist. I have her Gates gardening guide, but it doesn't seem to help very much.

Anyway, scope for a garden is limited when you live in an apartment but I have been determined to grow my own herbs/vegies for a while now.

I have had several vegie/herb gardens in the past, most notably one out on the courtyard at my current residence. The possums managed to devour all the plants within about one week so I had to give the dream away. Recently, I had a bright idea - perhaps I could have a garden on the top balcony - off my bedroom. The balcony is very small- maybe 2 m x 3m and also has an air-conditioning vent to take into consideration but when I get something in my mind- it is not easily forgotten. Suffice to say that now I have a little herb garden on my top balcony.

The garden consists of the following:

• one dwarf lemon tree

• one dwarf lime tree




• mint



• coriander


• garlic chives




• chilli




• pot tomato


• parsley


• basil and




• lettuce.

There have been a couple of problems- the mint leaves initially turned brownish- I thought that maybe the fertiliser we used was too acidic?? but now the problem seems to have resolved itself. Also the parsley seems to be browning and only three of the lettuce's survived the replanting.

I am really looking forward to getting some fruit from the trees, and also want to plant some snow peas, tomatoes, beans and maybe even some other vegies- too adventurous?
Do you have any good ideas for a balcony garden?

On another note- they have just cut down all the trees in our back courtyard because they were causing water problems- Now we stare straight into the next door neighbours yard, or rather they stare directly into our living room- very creepy and not private at all. We used to have about 8 skinny little trees planted along and they provided a beautiful canopy - now it's just bare. Do you have any ideas for an instant canopy? Let me know ASAP! Not sure how long I can bear looking at the bare.