Revamp of the balconies - Part 1B

After 3 days of "hard work" (I can only work on the garden in the morning or late evening.. when it is not too hot and there's enough light), I'm done with balcony #1.

Ta-daahhh! Here are some pictures of it...

A collage of pictures of Balcony #1 and the view from it

My edibles collection

Antique metal rack and my African violets..
and oh, my chamomile is also in the picture!
I'm still thinking about where to hang her..

The not-flowering-at-the-moment flowering plants corner..

I'm not done with the flowering plants, which is why they are all sitting in a corner for now.. I'm supposed to move them out to get the sun when I'm done with them.

Most of my herbs are recovering from some previous pests attack.. Doing okay but things can definitely be better. I've just thin out my basil collection. Realised I didn't get them enough root space when I went over to Petunia's.

Some of my seedlings (dinnerplate hibiscus, chamomile) are doing well... Others (Cucumber, I must have hurt it when I moved it to a bigger pot) not too good..

And that's the beauty of a garden, isn't it? There's always some work-in-progress, nothing is ever quite complete...

I'm sure my balcony will be much nicer if I went to get a "ready-made garden".. ie, get the landscaper guys to come in and do it up. But there's a lot of satisfaction from working on my little balcony.

Now, I'm contemplating on working on my master bedroom balcony, ie. Balcony #2.. :)

Revamp of the balconies - Part 1A

The painting of the exterior walls of my apartment is finally almost over.. the side of my apartment with the balconies have been painted. (And now, my balconies' wooden decking has like hundreds of little drips of paint that can come off if you scrap it a little.. but it'd take a long while to do that so I'm leaving them there for now and kind of hoping Nature will get rid of them... Actually, I know she won't. I'd just have to slowly do it.)

Now, it's time to revamp my balconies.

I've decided plan it out this time around. And I've also decided I'd do one balcony at a time.

OK, so here is my "floor plan" for the Level 1 balcony. It is also sometimes called Balcony No. 1. It's the smallest of the 3 balconies, but it is also my favourite because:
- It is the balcony where my herbs are,
- It is the most "accessible" balcony (to the kitchen, that it)
- Of the 3, I spend most time in this balcony.

I've managed to repot most of my plants into bigger pots. And have been diligently giving all my infected plants a bath.

Tomorrow, I'd reorganise my plants according to this layout.

There's just one little problem I have with this layout. Because the section with the edibles don't really get too much direct sunlight. I'd have to move my herbs now and then to get a good dosage of sun.

Oh well, I guess one can't have the best of all worlds..

Healthy Carrot Cake

I have been juicing a lot of fruits and vegetables recently..

And one of my favourite vegetable is carrot. Carrots turns all juices into a nice bright orange, tastes super sweet (use only large carrots to get the sweet taste, not baby ones).

With all the pulp I got from juicing carrots, I decided to bake a carrot cake.

I went online to search for a recipe and finally decided on this one at joyofbaking.com, partly because of the picture and partly because I have all the ingredients required at home.

I decided to really go out of the way for this cake, so I "grated" my carrots in 3 different ways, to get different textures:
1) I juiced 1 carrots, drank the juice and set aside the pulp for the cake
2) Grated another carrot
3) Shredded the last one for this cake

Remembering my previous experiences with cake recipes online (all too sweet), I also adjusted the recipe a little.

Ingredients
2 cups (280 grams) all-purpose flour
1 teaspoon baking soda
1 1/2 teaspoons baking powder
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 1/2 teaspoons ground cinnamon
4 large eggs
1 cup (240 ml) vegetable oil (I used a mix of canola and sunflower oil)
2 teaspoons pure vanilla extract
1 cup (250 grams) brown sugar (Original recipe calls for 300g of white sugar)

What I did
1. In a medium bowl, mix all the dry ingredients together well
2. Beat egg for 1 minute
3. Add sugar and beat for 3-4 minutes
4. Add oil in a steady stream and beat as I add the oil
5. Add in vanilla extract
6. Fold carrots and flour into egg mixture (Note: fold, not beat)

Preheat oven to 180 deg C. Bake in a 23cm diameter round tin for more than 60 minutes. I think if you divide the mixture into 2 and bake in 2 tins as per the original recipe, it'd take less time - 30 to 40 minutes.

A nice cinnamon aroma starts floating around the house when the cake starts getting cooked..

The cake is definitely moist enough.. I would definitely try it with the frosting next time. (Joy of Baking also gave the recipe for a cream cheese frosting. I realised I didn't have any confectionary sugar at home... so made the healthy version today.. :))