buying seeds!

So I got a tip that Home Depot carries seeds sooner than Lowe's.  This weekend I went over there and picked up some seeds!

First of all, my gardening book arrived.

I picked this up from Barnes & Noble online since I had a gift certificate from Christmas.  I picked this one because a) it was focused on vegetables (vs. flowers) and b) it was about growing them in containers (vs. in the ground).

So, after reading the book I made my list of what I want to try growing.  The main thing is I can either grow from seed, or I can buy already started plants and transplant them to the porch.  But starting inside and then transplanting is not an option.  I have four overly curious cats who will devour anything green they find, and nowhere in my small condo to keep baby plants that they would be both safe from kitties and also get sunlight.

Here's my haul from Home Depot -

The beets were a given.  The carrots I got are shorter and fatter so hopefully will be good for a container.  The mesculin is a lettuce mix (I looked at a few before choosing this one - it has some kale mixed in there too, which I liked).  The cucumbers were sort of an impulse thing.  Apparently cucumbers do better if they have a trellis to grow on.  Well, I don't have a trellis but the walls of my condo balcony are this great metal grate stuff that I think would be easy to climb.

So we'll do these, and then I am also planning on buying some tomato plants and also some herbs.  I have tried growing basil before but was lazy about it and never actually repotted it, so it usually died pretty quickly.  Now I will have one herb pot with basil, dill, and maybe something else that I'll buy, and another one with catnip.  Because obviously catnip is required in my garden.  :)

Now the shift goes to containers.  The book I bought is really big on self-watering containers, but looking through inventory at Lowe's and Home Depot didn't reveal any of these.  I may just go with regular pots and be religious about watering them.  The second part of that is figuring out how many containers I need and how deep they need to be.  I figure I'll do two long skinny ones, one for the cucumbers and one for the lettuce.  Everything else will be in regular pots.

I also need to figure out frost dates and when I need to start planting.  Knowing my busy schedule, I will have to set aside time for it so I want to know way ahead of time so I can fit it in.