Cucumbers need Water

This is a picture of a little cucumber starting to grow. I was really happy because in the beginning the harvest seemed to become a great one. The plant had a lot of little yellow flowers and every flower ment a cucumber. Unfortunaly I had again made the mistake, that I had planted too many plants in a too little container. Cucumber plants need a lot of water and that they took away from each other. So most of the little cucumbers dried out before they were big enough to harvest them.
But next year I will try it again. I will also let the plant climb upwards on a stick instead of just letting it hang down my balcony.

So where to get all the water for the plants from?

This is what I do, instead of just getting it out of the tap.
1. Outdoors. I try to collect rain water in a bucket on my balcony. My balcony has a roof though, which makes it kinda hard.
2. Bathroom. The shower is the place where I collect most of my water for the plants. I am a wimp and hate cold showers. But the water always has to run for a while until it gets hot. So I always have a bucket in my bathroom to collect the water for the plants. This way it is not wasted.
3. Kitchen.  In the kitchen you can easyly collect water. The eggwater I have already mentioned in the post before. Another way is to collect the water from washing fruits and veggies. For that I use a bowl like this

The bowl has a plastic strainer in it. While washing my veggies the water runs trough it into the bowl. The water is a littel muddy though so I always mix it with the water from the shower.

By the way flowers don't like water straight from the tap. It is too cold and often has chlorine and lime in it. So what you can do is fill your watering bottle and let the water settle over night. The next day the chlorine has evaporated, the lime has descended to the ground of the bottle and the water has room temperature.

Do you have anymore tips how to collect water in your household? Let me know, leave me a post!

Next time I will let you know about my recent project the "winter-windowsill-herb-garden" and a super easy way to build a littel greenhouse!

Eggplants and Egg-Water-Fertilizer

Since Eggplants are one of my favorite veggies, of course I also wanted to try growing them on my balcony.
I am very lucky to have a south facing balcony so it is sunny all day. That is just perfect. I choose seeds from an eggplant that has small fruits. I made the mistake though to have 2 plants in one container. Looking back the container is just to small for 2 plants, so they don't have enough space for their roots and are taking away nutritions from each other. Even though until now I had a harvest of 4 fruits I think I could have had way more.
From mid September on it got colder and I put my eggplants into the littel greenhouse I bought. And it really helped, I have 2 new fruits hanging on theplant right now.

in September

 

Today

Talking about nurtitions for the plant here a littel tip from me:

How many eggs have you cooked in the last time and how much water did you use? If you want to fertilize your plant in an easy, cheap and organic way you can use the water in which you boiled your eggs. This egg-water is rich in calcium and nutritions. I do it all the time. I always buy organic eggs .Someone told me you could also use the water from boiling potatos. But only if you boil the potatos with the skin on and of course without adding salt to the water! I havent't tried that yet but I will. If you have any tips on fertilizing your plants, leave me a comment!

Next time I will tell you about my cucumber harvest and easy ways to collect water for your plants in your daily household!