So today while I was out shopping I wandered over to Lowe's. I remembered seeing seeds there before, but alas, apparently they don't carry them in the winter. While I was there, I found a book specializing in container gardening. I had been over to Barnes and Noble earlier (gift card from my aunt and uncle!) but didn't find a gardening book I liked. All the container ones were for ornamental plants, and all the urban homesteading books were too focused on having an actual plot of ground and raising chickens. (Someday I would like to raise chickens. Obviously I never will while I'm living in my condo, but... someday!)
So, I found a book called The Vegetable Gardner's Container Bible. It was focused on the two things I need: containers and veggies. :) I left the copy at Lowe's and then after I got home I ordered it from Barnes and Noble online using my gift card. I am still considering ordering some kind of portable green house thing but I'm not sure. I want to read my book and see what the best methods for my chosen vegetables are and go from there.
Since my quest for seeds had been futile, I googled "seed catalogs" and came up with a few websites. I ordered a free seed catalog from parkseed.com as they seemed to have a good selection with some organic options and also not too pricey. I would love to grow organic seed but I am not going to be uber-picky about it. I am planning to order seeds for a lettuce mix, carrots, and beets. (I love beets. I could seriously compose an entire blog entry about beets. Maybe I will someday.) I also want to grow tomatoes but understand it's easier/better to just buy some small starter plants and go from there.
I also found this really interesting article about growing potatoes in a barrel. So: now that I've selected the veggies I want to start off with, I will start searching for containers. A barrel would be awesome but I won't be heartbroken if I don't find one. In the meantime, I need to start getting my stuff together to grow lettuce, carrots, beets, and however I'll do the tomatoes. Going to look around in the next few weeks to see what I can find.
I took some "before" photos of my balcony this morning.
Here's hoping by this summer it'll be all green!
Saturday, December 31, 2011
Wednesday, December 28, 2011
a beginning
So - a blog!
I've been thinking about doing a blog for a while now. A friend of mine mentioned it to me again recently, and I decided to take the plunge.
There are a lot of things I'm interested in and that I'll probably talk about on here, but primarily I want to document my attempt to do some gardening on my 40 square foot condo balcony in 2012.
Primarily, I want to get either a cold frame or a mini greenhouse for my balcony. My balcony faces east with a decent southern exposure as well, so I think something that would have a little protection for the plants would be useful.
I want to grow lettuce, green onions, and beets. I'm also interested in trying potatoes, basil, and carrots to see what I can pull off. In years past I've had a basil plant or two but I can never seem to keep them alive very long.
I'll also be doing a CSA again this year and want to learn more about canning and food preserving so I can still save and eat later the things I don't get to every week - even with a half share, excess food was a problem in 2011!
Come join me on my journey! :)
I've been thinking about doing a blog for a while now. A friend of mine mentioned it to me again recently, and I decided to take the plunge.
There are a lot of things I'm interested in and that I'll probably talk about on here, but primarily I want to document my attempt to do some gardening on my 40 square foot condo balcony in 2012.
Primarily, I want to get either a cold frame or a mini greenhouse for my balcony. My balcony faces east with a decent southern exposure as well, so I think something that would have a little protection for the plants would be useful.
I want to grow lettuce, green onions, and beets. I'm also interested in trying potatoes, basil, and carrots to see what I can pull off. In years past I've had a basil plant or two but I can never seem to keep them alive very long.
I'll also be doing a CSA again this year and want to learn more about canning and food preserving so I can still save and eat later the things I don't get to every week - even with a half share, excess food was a problem in 2011!
Come join me on my journey! :)
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