Hi! I'm as new to gardening as I am to this forum. I've always loved wildflowers, while finding a lot of "garden flowers" a bit "over the top". Combined with a complete lack of green fingers, I've never given gardening a try, and the closest I've come, was killing off some poor cacti while growing up, as well as not managing to keep cat grass or basil alive. Basically, I'm completely useless. Somehow I got the idea that I should give gardening a try anyway, and after some weeks of reading up on how not to kill plants, which plants work well with others and how to attract bees, I bought all the things. Honestly, it really feels like I brought the gardening centre home with me.
Now, the area I have available is my balcony, which has walls on three sides and sunlight from dawn to noon or thereabouts. It measures something around 80 sq.ft, but most of it is occupied by furniture, but I somehow managed to fit two window boxes, a raised bed on wheels, a quite sizeable planter and two smaller ones, plus a 13" hanging basket. I wanted a cottage garden vibe, so I've crammed a lot of stuff into the containers (three roses - Coral Dawn, Aspirin and Sommerwind/Surrey, some perennials - lavenders, phlox and geraniums, some herbs that "the Internet" told me would keep pests away from the roses, and a few annuals, mostly for groundcover and to add a spiller effect, in addition to a purple bell vine), and I'm so excited! I'm constantly reminding myself that I am very likely to kill several of them, either by overwatering, forgetting to water them or because I've messed up in some other way. Maybe none of them will be alive come July. I mean, my track record of keeping plants alive is utterly depressing. After reading on this forum though, I feel certain that if (when) something goes awry, I'll get some really great advice from you guys, and in time, I may even be able to help someone else (most likely by telling them not to do what I did).
I'm so excited to participate in this forum, and to give gardening a go! Wish me luck!
There have been some small setbacks - my fuchsia is sulking, and three of the strawberry plants I ordered online came with fungus gnats in their soil. I realised that yesterday - I got some plants for my mother as well, and kept them inside for a few days. There were a lot of small flies around them, but I didn't think to take a look at my own plants then, and when looking at the soil in the window box, I realised there were several dozens of small gnats there. That probably explains why the plants themselves seem under the weather, so while waiting for the stores to open again after Pentecost, I've covered surface with perlite, hoping that that will keep the gnats from laying more eggs and larvae from surfacing as new gnats. 
