planning ahead

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!

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!  :)