Italman's breakfast

Here's my homegrown Saint Pierre tomato with some bread and cheese, hmmm so delicious!

Balcony Saint Pierre Tomatoes & Peppers

My balcony garden is still producing a great amount of cherry tomatoes and although we've lost a lot due to the bad weather, I must say I'm still quite happy with my urban grow! It feels great to walk out of the kitchen and harvest a dozen of cherry tomatoes every now and then. They are so tasty, so sweet and you can pick one when ever you want. However, other organically grown veggies were also recently harvested from my city garden and they too deserve a word or two. I'm talking about the peppers which I grew from seeds my brother brought a few years ago from Macedonia and my giant Saint Pierre tomatoes.

I must say that no bought tomato beats the taste of my homegrown Saint Pierre, hmmm it's so tasty and the peppers...!!!

Birds of Prey Keeping Pigeons Away

I have already written a few posts regarding the problems pigeons are causing on my balcony, however today things are looking much better. I've tried a couple of methods in order to get rid of pigeons or better said in order to keep them away, but recently I got some extra help!

At first, I noticed we have some newcomers in our neighborhood as they could be easily seen flying the sky over my apartment building. Since then, every morning you can here a high pitched call that sounds something like kee-kee-kee. I'm not a bird expert, but I've done some research and it seems that the birds in question are called Common Kestrels. When they hover over my neighborhood, it seems like there aren't any pigeons around and I guess that's because they can easily become their prey.

It's great to have such friends high up in the urban skies! I managed to take a few photos of them, but unfortunately not the best quality!

Kestrel(Falco tinnunculus)

I hope I'll be able to capture these beautiful birds of prey much better very soon!

Wet Balcony Veggies

Just a few photos of my balcony veggies after the rain.





The harvest day is getting nearer!

Yet Another Storm in Zagreb City

Well, yet another storm has struck Zagreb city and my balcony garden plants were once again under heavy attack. My plants were tossed all around the balcony and you could find cherry tomatoes all around. Luckily, I managed to save some, but I suspect there are more down in the park, in front of my apartment building. The rain was falling like crazy as you can see from this picture taken from my balcony.

The wind was also blowing like crazy and my tomatoes were once again the once which have gotten it the worse. Here's my balcony garden tomato jungle, all messed up!

Unfortunately, we've lost a considerable amount of fruit(veggies). These are just some of the casualties, at least those I managed to save!

Just a half an hour later the sun was shining, like nothing happened!

I'll be able to estimate he real amount of damage in a couple of days, but for now I can only hope that my plants will recuperate and keep on growing as well as they were. Even though times like these are hard for every gardener, I try not to feel bad. When something like this happens, I just plant some more seeds and instantly I feel a lot better! However, before I do that, I have to take care of my balcony, because it looks like a little swimming pool!

Balcony garden veggies

More and more vegetables from my balcony garden are ripening and getting their true colors. Apart from cherry tomatoes, which have already been harvested for a couple of times, my peppers and Saint Pierre tomatoes are also getting close to their harvest day. Very soon I'll be enjoying more homegrown veggies from my urban balcony garden.

Saint Pierre Tomatoes





Peppers

Nature in the City

Most of us urban dwellers have to face nature deprived conditions of our everyday city life. Raw concrete jungle is our habitat, but is it natural or can it be, I doubt so. Plants and animals seem to be unwanted guests here, especially if left out of our control. Hmm, is urbanization a concept that rules out natural elements and if so, can it survive as such... Is it possible to bring back or at least save what's left of nature in our cities, it's left to be seen...

Luckily, my home town and the capital of Croatia, Zagreb still has a few places where you can relax in relatively natural environment. One of those places is a park called Bundek. It's just a ten minute walk from my home, so I go there pretty often. It's great to have a place like this in the middle of concrete jungle, especially when you get tired of everyday city rush. A few years ago, it was a real natural oasis in the middle of Zagreb, but it was rearranged and nature was put under control. Logically, since then, the number of plants and animals has fallen significantly. However, it's still one of the places to visit if you are in Zagreb! Lets take a walk!

Meet the local duck family!