My husband and I have never been plant people. Given the frequency with which we travel (and move), plants just never seemed to be worth the effort. My attempts to grow things and keep them alive have been limited to basil plants and the odd oregano. That is, until now.
A couple weekends ago we headed to the local Praktiker to pick up some pots and dirt with the intention of growing an extended herb garden. Our new apartment has a small south-facing balcony which gets too much sun for me to ever want to sit on it, so we might as well put something else out there, we reasoned. Then we came across the little seedling plants on display. Tomatoes and peppers and zucchini, oh my! And suddenly the idea of growing my own vegetables sounded like the most awesome thing ever. We bought up a bunch of plants, a few pots, and some dirt, and headed home.
A little internet research revealed how foolish and naive we had been, expecting to fit all those plants into relatively few pots. Who knew tomatoes needed so much space per plant? Not willing to give up on our foolishly-purchased little seedlings so easily, it was back to the store for more pots and dirt. Then an afternoon of planting, and voila!, we had an adorable little balcony vegetable garden underway.
The plants are all growing well, and I couldn’t be prouder of them. See that zucchini plant flowering? I did that! And what’s this, some teeny tiny strawberries? That was me! OMG, is that the start of a green pepper? Growing? On my balcony? This is the coolest feeling ever. Life, I am a giver of life!
The thing is, now I’m kind of getting addicted. I need more. I came across a big display of seeds in the grocery store yesterday, and I started salivating as I gleefully picked out packets that could be planted in May. Arugula, radishes, carrots, peas, lettuce… I can grow these, too? It was all I could do to keep from jumping up and down and clapping in the store.
So today it was back to the home store for more pots. And a spade and a watering can. Oh yeah, we’re getting hard-core now. The cash going into this new little passion is starting to add up, too. But the way I figure it, zucchini flowers sell for up to a euro apiece at the farmers’ market; so if our three plants each produce, say, 70 flowers each, we’ll have easily made our money back. And we’ll be eating a whole lot of stuffed zucchini flowers this summer. Yum.
Welcome to the dark side. 😉 It always starts innocently with a plan for one or two plants, then somehow it snowballs from there into the entire balcony and a major cash outlay.
Looks great though. 🙂
Thanks, Heather!
I feel like I’m teetering on the edge of becoming like those people who talk on and on about their kids… but at least there are some others out there as obsessed as I am. 🙂
Very awesome! We are house hunting right now and one of the things I simply cannot wait to do is give basil and tomatoes some life! 🙂
I just caught the gardening bug now that we have a garden. I’m starting out small with a little basil plant. You happen to know how soon I can start harvesting the leaves? I assume 2 days after I bought it is a little soon.
Basil can be continuously harvested. Go for the biggest leaves and pinch them off with your fingernails. Try to thin out the bushiest parts (leaves that don’t get enough sun eventually turn yellow, and you don’t want that!), but definitely leave some leaves on each stem (although I have had basil come back to life after being picked clean, too). Also, cut off the tops when it starts making flower buds. You want leaves, not flowers. Get more than one plant, so you have enough for pesto! 🙂
I’m with you — I’ve never considered myself a plant person, either. But yours looks great. (My current roommate have plants all over the place, which I like. And the best part it? Since they’re hers, SHE has to water them!) 🙂
Right now, the rain is taking care of the watering duties. 🙂
Oh giver or life, first plants…and then babies! – Anita
Sounds like someone needs and allotment! 😉 I am on a waiting list to get a Familiengarten in Zurich… Can’t wait to see photos of the big harvest.
Anita – plants don’t require diapers. I think I’ll stick with them.
Jessica – an allotment sounds very cool. I don’t think we have those here, leider…
This is our third summer in this house, and we are slowly but surely getting the garden and balcony in shape.
The first summer our new puppies were pretty much given the run of the garden, and – being dachshunds – quickly began digging their way to China through the weeds. It was a mess!
The second summer we had sod laid and two cartwheel-shaped stone enclosures for herbs. We also cleared out a lot of the ivy that we considered neither attractive or convenient, and began replacing it with something a bit more colorful.
This year the first peony bushes are blossoming and some of the herbs are coming back up. The mint and lemon balm are a challenge, though, because they threaten to again take over if we’re not careful.
We spent yesterday at Praktiker getting another peony, as well as fuchsia and another oleander for the balcony, plus more basil, thyme a few other herbal goodies.
I just posted some preliminary pix on my blog last week and hope to continue capturing our progress as the weeks pass:
http://caratime2.wordpress.com/2008/05/21/pre-season-flora/#more-84
You should look into the square foot gardening method. It allows you to maximize the amount of food you produce, using only 6 inches of soil.
A 4×4 section is supposed to produce ‘enough’ veggies for an average person for longer than a normal growing season. You can go smaller or thinner as your space allows.
You can find the website at squarefootgardening dot com. He also has a metric version, if that helps.