About this time last year I bought some troughs and supports to hang on the balcony rail, along with some trailing geraniums. Within a couple of weeks, the geranium leaves were looking rather lace-like and a month later they were barely alive. I think there must have been some mini-beasty chomping its way through them.

I ignored them until winter, when I bought fresh compost, some cyclamen and a selection of pansies; they looked lovely until we had a hard frost (-7°C), at which point the cyclamen lost the will to live. A week later there was a big storm, which shredded the pansies and what was left of the cyclamen. It’d be an understatement to say I felt discouraged.

A couple of weeks ago, one warm, sunny afternoon, I decided it was time to do something about the balcony; it could be such a lovely space with a bit of TLC, but somehow I hadn’t had the heart to really tackle it up to now.

I spent the next two afternoons cleaning; windows, walls, floor, even the big storage cupboard that had become a junk store. I googled “flower filled balconies” and that did it; so many images of tiny spaces transformed into oases of calm and tranquility, bursting with colour and, I imagine, the scents of the flowers. I hit the shops.

I got trailing geraniums for the troughs from the local garden centre, along with just one upright geranium (they were too expensive to buy more) and a pack of begonias to put in a big pot I had in the garage. My plan is to take cuttings from the geranium for next year.

I noticed a poster advertising a plant sale, run by a school PTA, so went along for a look; it was fantastic! A hall filled with all sorts of annual plants and the more you bought, the cheaper they were; I came home with thirty – petunias, busy lizzies, marigolds, alyssum, lobelia……

Another garden centre provided two sorts of  lavender and a cherry tomato plant designed for balconies.

I read of a pépinière (plant nursery) on my route home from the patchwork club; it got good reviews online, so I called in. It looked a bit disorganised and it took me a while to find anybody, but at last someone appeared; he then found the boss for me, who was delightful. I explained that I needed guidance and drew a plan of the balcony in the sandy ground; what could he suggest? A gorgeous, blue hydrangea, with instructions on how to keep it blue, a phormium, a loropetalum and a little palm tree thrown in as a gift. He’s ordered a jasmine to climb up the wall too, that I can collect next week.

Mart and Paul were coming over on Sunday; Mart’s really green fingered and always has loads of cuttings, so she brought me two hydrangeas, three palm trees and a selection of succulents. Kieran cleared out his garage and brought a few pots too.

I spent Monday sourcing the cheapest pots I could (they cost more than the plants!), along with suitable compost, then I started potting up.

I’d need something to give a bit of height in places, so I went down to the garage, where there were several shelf units. A tall, industrial looking aluminium unit would go against the wall and house some of the annuals, so I asked a neighbour to help me bring it upstairs.

There was also a shorter, wood and metal unit that I thought might cut down to go behind the sofa, but it turned out to be useful as it was for the tomato plant, in front of the balcony rail and I might grow lettuce on its lower shelves.

Then I noticed, tucked in a corner of the garage, behind other shelves, my bike, an exhibition stand and a load of other junk, a plastic shelf unit, that looked as though it was modular. I brought it up, cleaned it, dismantled it and tucked it away behind the sofa. Perfect! I’ll have to wait for Kieran to move the big palm tree onto it, as it’s too heavy for me to shift.

There are still spaces for more plants, and I hope the ones I’ve got will grow soon (quickly – I’m impatient), but already the balcony feels so much more inviting, I can see I’ll be spending a lot more time out there now.