I am very excited to announce that I’ve found the first balcony to profile for My Balcony, My Garden, my upcoming book with Timber Press. Anna Beaudry lives in Vancouver, BC and gardens on her condo’s patio. Anna is a professional photographer (check out her work at http://www.annabeaudry.com) and tweets from @Annabeau. Anna very generously agreed to share some tips for taking great photos of your balcony.

I still am sorting through all of your submissions for My Balcony, My Garden (so many great balconies to look at!), but if after reading Anna’s tips, you’re itching to try out some of her tips, feel free to send a few more photographs my way. And there is still plenty of time if you haven’t submitted a photo yet. Here is where to find out about how your balcony can be featured in my book.

Technical Stuff

Sometimes covering the basics makes all the difference. Anna recommends making sure your lens in clean, and that your camera is set to capture images at as high a resolution as possible. She suggests using a wide angle lens (anywhere between 14 mm and 35 mm) for capturing the entire setting of your garden and balcony. If you’re looking to capture a special vignette or grouping of pots, use a normal lens like a 50 mm or a slightly longer.

Be sure to turn your flash off, natural lighting is best.

Anna suggests that if you have manual controls “be sure to select an exposure that gives you the most depth of field combined with the fastest shutter speed.” If your camera just has automatic settings for different types of scenes, “choose landscape as it usually enhances greens and blues.”

Getting Your Balcony Ready to Be Photographed

Again, covering the basics will get you a lot of bang for your buck. Remove dead leaves, sweep the floor, rinse your plants to remove dust and other debris. I know I have to resist the urge to just snap away and do these first, but having a sharp looking garden makes it a lot easier to produce sharp looking photographs!

Anna also suggests some styling tips that will help you enjoy your garden long after you’re done photographing it. She thinks groupings of three are often pleasing to the eye, and likes adding some accessories to liven things up. “It doesn’t have to be anything fancy, painted rocks, watering cans, sun umbrellas, statues, etc” all work well.

As far as the day of your photo shoot, including your family pet (“if they like the serenity of your garden”) is a great way to add interest to your photos. Anna also points out that a nice food set up can work well too, like “a bowl of colourful fresh fruit or a loaf of bread, cheese & wine.”

Lighting

Be sure to choose the time of day that shows off your balcony in the best light. Here are Anna’s suggestions for different exposures:

• If you are north facing, any time is perfect as there won’t be any direct sunlight.
• If you are west facing, consider waiting until late in the day when the sun is low and lazy.
• East facing? Get up early and catch the sun’s first rays kissing your plants good morning.
• South facing balconies might be best at high noon.

Don’t forget about nighttime! As Anna points out, “Sometimes a night shot, with patio lanterns or candles, works amazingly well. Just be sure to use a tripod to avoid camera shake. Don’t use flash, it will spoil the ambience of the natural lighting.”

Capturing the Perfect Shot

Anna recommends “tak[ing] a few pictures showing the widest view of your garden that you can so we can see it in it’s entirety” and also “tak[ing] a few pictures highlighting some special settings or groupings. Move around your garden and shoot from different angles, up high, down low and be sure to shoot some vertical and some horizontal images.” She says–and I totally concur!–make sure to capture ”the unique qualities and features of your garden. Maybe you have some rare plants, unusual pots, or interesting decor…show it off!”

Now that you surely have plenty of great balcony garden photos, why not share them in the Life on the Balcony Flickr group?

I snapped this pic at Roger’s Gardens a high-end garden center in Corona Del Mar. It’s simple and dignified, and I guarantee you that butterflies will love that Asclepias curassavica, also called Mexican Butterfly Weed.

It doesn’t get much easier than this as far as mixed containers go. Plop the Asclepias in the back and two calibrachoa in the front and away you go!

What are your favorite butterfly garden plants?

Send me a tweet (my twitter account is @lifeontheblcny) about mosquitoes

I’ll pick one of the entries to win this cute snail carrying a mosquito-repelling citronella candle. You have until Sunday at midnight California time to enter. You must live in the continental United States to win.

I thought we’d do things a little bit differently for this carnival, since the majority of submissions came in the form of comments instead of blog posts. We did get two wonderful posts, so definitely check those out, but I thought you’d also enjoy reading “short form” carnival submissions…

An Aloe From Louise

Kathy of Native Gardener wrote a beautiful post about the aloe she received from her friend Louise. The roots of the plant she received eventually broke through the bottom of the container they were growing in and rooted the plant into the soil. I can’t help but think that there is something to be learned from that part of her story about the strength of the friendship between Kathy and Louise.

Memorial Gardens–Small & Large

Jessi of Garden Fowl wrote another really touching post, this one about creating a veterans memorial garden. Both of Jessi’s grandfathers were WWII vets. Unfortunately neither of them were able to see the beautiful space she created in their–and other war veterans’–honor.

Welcoming Rescued Mutts Into the Garden

I loved what Carol in AZ said about including the memory of her pet family in her garden: “…I commemorate the rescued mutts I have lost in my little desert garden with various rocks or horseshoes we have found together. Note that I also commemorate my mutts that are still with me the same way…”

Raised Beds As Large Containers?

Tom shared this sentiment about a garden he cares for with his wife: “This might be long and rambling, but… and it’s sorta container gardening related — raised beds are just really large containers, right? 

When my wife’s first husband passed away, her cottage garden became a memory garden of sorts, with gift plants from master gardeners, their friends, and the church community. To this day, every year, it gets a red geranium planted by Glenn’s bench. Since we’ve been married, we’ve sadly added or nourished along favorite plants of a close friend, my sister, and my wife’s Mom, all who have passed away in recent months and years.”

Carniverous Plants Make Interesting Plants for a Memorial Garden

I love that Paul Riddel was able to remember his grandma in a way that makes him (and me!) smile: “You’re going to laugh, but one of the big reasons why I raise carnivorous plants is to remember my maternal grandmother. This woman had no fear of man, beast, or god, and took no grief from same. She was also an exceptional painter and gardener, and I can’t look at a Sarracenia “Scarlet Belle” without thinking of how much fun she’d have had painting it. (In a strange way, too, her death in 2002 helped sprout my love for carnivores: I took a job in Tallahassee partly to have a quiet place to mourn for a while, and I became hooked on carnivores while I was there.) Between carnivores, cactus, Euphorbia, and exotic fruit trees (including my beloved Buddha’s Hand citron), I think I’ve done a better job of summing up her personality than any static memorial.”

Memorial Walking Trail

I thought this was a really nice idea that Cheryl and her best friend’s family came up with: “I just wanted to share that I lost my best friend in 2002 and in her honor, her family and I cleared a trail in the woods behind her parent’s house and created a ‘walk’. We planted flowers and placed little ornaments along the way that represented her and eventually after some time had passed, we all found some comfort on that walk.”

Creative Container Garden Ideas:

• Chalkboard Pots – I especially love the pot with the scalloped chalkboard. Super cute ideas from We Heart This.
• Tomatoes in Containers – Kerry shares a video she made about growing tomatoes in containers.
• Braided Avocado Trees – Sue shares her idea for creating an avocado tree with a braided trunk. I don’t recommend growing avocados from seed if you want fruit (could take decades, and the fruit may not taste like that of the parent tree), but if you’re looking for a fun, cheap project, with what will surely be beautiful results, why not?!
• Five Ways to a Beautiful Balcony – Great collection of photos and advice

Beetnik Media

I just realized I never really said much about Beetnik Media here. Basically, fellow blogger Adriana Martinez (Anarchy in the Garden) and I are joining forces to help the gardening and eco-friendly businesses we love connect with their customers through social media. Our first major project is throwing a party at the Garden Writers Symposium in Dallas on September 9, 2010. Even if you’re not going to the GWA symposium, I want to invite you to come to the party. It will be a great opportunity to mingle with passionate gardeners. I look forward to meeting you in person!

Life on the Balcony Flickr Group

It’s been awhile since I had the chance to really look at all the photos being uploaded to the LOTB Flickr group. If it’s been awhile for you too, I suggest checking it out. Lots of great inspiration there.

Best of August on LOTB

In case you missed these posts the first time around, here are the three most popular posts on LOTB from August, 2010.

• How Your Balcony Can Get in My Book, Called My Balcony, My Garden
• The Ark of Taste – 11 Slow Food Approved Plants to Grow On Your Balcony
• How to Convert a BBQ into an Herb Garden

My book (called My Balcony, My Garden: The complete guide to planning, potting, and growing an apartment garden, I don’t think I shared the title yet?) is going to include profiles of different balcony gardeners from across the country. My editor and I were thinking that it would be really fun (and helpful) to show photos of balconies from all sorts of different climates and hear from those balcony gardeners about the challenges and benefits of gardening in their region.

First, I made a Facebook page for My Balcony, My Garden. I would love to connect with people who want to hear about the book over there. I’m going to start photographing some local balconies for the book and I’ll be sharing a few pictures from those shoots. And I’ll share other “sneak peeks” of the book there too. Of course, once the book is published, I’ll use that page to let people know about book events and things like that. I hope you’ll also share ideas and photos there too.

That brings me to how your patio or balcony can be featured in My Balcony, My Garden. As I mentioned, I’m looking for beautiful, interesting apartment/condo gardens from several different regions. Have one of those? Share your best photo of your garden on the Facebook page or in the Life on the Balcony Flickr group. Be sure to include a little bit about yourself and your region.

Here are the regions I’m looking for:

• Pacific Northwest
• Mountain West & Midwest
• Southwest
• South
• Atlantic & North East

If your balcony is profiled in My Balcony, My Garden, I’ll send you a free copy of the book when it comes out so that you can see your garden in all it’s glory.

Window boxes can be used in more places than just under windows. For example, I like lining the edge of my balcony with them and planting the boxes overflowing with plants. What’s nice is that my garage is right under my balcony, and I get to see all those plants spilling out of their window boxes every time I come and go. I just planted these two window boxes, remind me to post more photos when these window boxes grows in.

• A – Blue Salvia (1 six pack will be enough for two window boxes)
• B – White Cosmos (1 six pack will be enough for two window boxes)
• C – Orange Lantana
• D – White Sweet Alyssum (1 six pack will be enough for two window boxes)
• E – Blue Lobelia (1 six pack will be enough for two window boxes)

Planting these window boxes is pretty darn easy. In the back you switch off between cosmos and salvia. In the front, you plant a lantana in each corner and alternate between the lobelia and sweet alyssum in between them.

I can’t wait until everything grows in! For now, this is what it looks like:

Great Container Gardening Info & Ideas:

• Beautiful photos and great tips on creating a beautiful balcony container garden from Isabelle Palmer on Fennel and Fern
• aHa Modern Living is having a seed sale. There’s still time to sow plenty of fall and winter veggies, check it out!
• Andrea has a great list of and info about winter vegetables, all of them are suitable for containers.
• Renee shares some really cool photos of her recent trip to the DC Botanical Gardens. There are some great ideas for vertical gardening among her pics.
• I loved looking at the progression of Marie’s watermelon from flower to fruit. All grown on her rooftop.

Win a Beautiful Pot from Sunset

Would you like to win this neat pot from the Home by Sunset collection from Bauer Pottery? Sunset Magazine is giving one away to the person who comes up with the best idea for what to plant in the pot. More details here.

Roasted Ratatouille Pizza

Doesn’t this recipe from Vegetarian Times look awesome?! Great way to use up late summer veggies…

• 1 recipe Chewy Pizza Dough (click here for recipe)
• 1 28-oz. can peeled whole tomatoes
• 1 small eggplant, quartered and cut into 1/2-inch-thick slices (2 cups)
• 2 small yellow squash or zucchini, sliced into rounds (2 cups)
• 1/2 large red onion, thinly sliced (1 cup)
• 2 Tbs. olive oil
• 3 cloves garlic, minced (1 Tbs.)
• 1 Tbs. herbes de Provence
• 1/2 cup prepared marinara sauce or 1 recipe Quick Pizza Sauce (click here for recipe)
• 1/4 cup black olives or capers, optional

Directions

1. Preheat oven to 450°F. Prepare Chewy Pizza Dough.

2. Drain tomatoes, and discard liquid. Halve each tomato lengthwise. Toss together tomatoes, eggplant, squash, red onion, oil, garlic, and herbes de Provence on baking sheet.

3. Roast vegetables 25 minutes, or until beginning to brown, tossing every 5 to 10 minutes. Cool 5 to 10 minutes, or store in refrigerator up to 3 days.

4. Meanwhile, shape Chewy Pizza Dough into 12-inch disk on baking sheet coated with cooking spray. Spread with sauce, and top with vegetables. Sprinkle with olives or capers, if using.

5. Place on middle rack in oven, and preheat oven to 350°F with pizza in oven. Once oven reaches 350°F, bake 25 to 30 minutes, or until bottom is crisp.