I have some totally newbie questions about my garden. And I also have some inspiration from another balcony garden blogger!
I'll start with the inspiration.
I've noticed how the 6x8 garden has this set up of their railing boxes and I totally want to do it! I've seen those premade two sided over the rail but didn't really want to buy them in case they didn't fit our rail, and after seeing this picture and asking how she did it I'm totally going to do this. First off I like the idea of maximizing both sides of the railing. And secondly the metal do-hickey we bought to hold the planter boxes don't fit our rail correctly and we had to do a quick (ugly) fix by using some spare plywood behind the metal bars to keep our box level and not tipping over. You can see our our eyesore here:
Not pretty at all. So I definitely am going to be buying another pair of boxes and some nylon rope! I'm thinking of doing strawberries and sage (cause our lemon sage makes puney little leaves) or maybe garlic in one and maybe peas in the other.
Is it too late to plant peas? Can I plant carrots in a box that shallow?
Onto my newbie questions (besides those previous ones).
Why aren't my chives flowering?
When we use green onions are we supposed to pull the whole thing out or can we just snip off a few sprigs and use that?
It's been raining a TON here in Seattle and I think it's killed my cilantro... what do you think? Can it survive?
Oh yea, and see that thyme? (See how puney the sage leaves are) Is it supposed to flower? Or does that mean it's bolted?
Why is my mint not really growing... the mint leaves are all so puney!
I think this arugula has seen better days, what else can I plant in a shallow container?
Could I transplant this mini rose plant into that container?
Ok, that's it for my newbie questions. Any help would be greatly appreciated.
I went to water the broccoli yesterday and look what I saw!
We'll soon be having garden fresh broccoli!
I'm also beginning to think the other two plants we thought were broccoli (I grabbed 3 plants in the same area not carefully looking at the labels) are really cauliflower. Dang! Oh well, we'll make something with it!
More garden progress!
Darwin had to inspect as I was trying to take pictures.
Here's one without her:
We've got arugula in the low pot, green onions in the the next one (and some spinach and arugula that got moved out from the front raised beds to make room for the starts), rosemary chives and oregano in the tallest pot, and mint in the silver bucket. In the box on the railing there's thyme, lemon sage and cilantro.
I think the arugula is starting to bolt and I'm wondering what I can plant next in it (the pot is pretty shallow, like a big bowl). I'm wondering why my chives don't have the pretty purple flowers I see in other chive plants... is mine defective?! And the mint and thyme only produce small tiny leaves.... is that normal?
Inside we have another box that is starting Italian parsley and basil.... I'm not sure when I can put those outside. Nothing seemed to grow from the first round of seeds of basil so I tried it again and there are maybe 2 or 3 little sprouts coming up.
I also just got a mini rose plant for my birthday!
Some of the flowers are starting to open up and they are so pretty! Yellow roses with slightly pink tips! I'm wondering if it would do better inside or outside and if I need to put it in a bigger pot?
Our broccoli is coming along nicely. It's funny how one is growing pretty quickly and the other two are lagging behind.
We also planted Jason and Darwin's tomato plant, and even though I don't like tomatoes I'm very excited about growing them!
So that's the rest of the garden. I did do some thinning of the arugula and some of the butter lettuce which we ate in a salad, but I'm still worried things are too squished, especially for the arugula.
I realized I haven't posted updated pictures of my garden in a while, so I took a few quick shots this morning.
A few weeks ago I went to the Ballard Farmers Market and picked up some starters to speed up our veggie eating. I got some butter lettuce, some red butter lettuce, and some red spinach.
This morning, everything was growing well!
The spinach I planted from seeds seems to be growing the slowest.
But the butter lettuce and arugula started from seeds is doing well.
I'm not sure about the whole thinning thing. Should I start thinning the arugula now? Do I really have to?!
It's pretty amazing looking back at the starts from three weeks ago or so and how much they've grown, actually how much everything has grown.
Next week I'll post about how the broccoli and other things are doing.
29* things to do before turning 30 - so I didn't get to cross of everything off my list, but I made a good dent and a lot of the things remaining I may be able to do before turning 31 so I think that counts. :)
(i think with the economy in the state its in... all items below that cost money may have to be put on hold til things are more stable)
1. visit at least 5 "middle" states (1. indiana, 2. michigan, 3. illinois, 4. ohio) (i dont know if im going to get one more "middle" state in!) (my 5th middle state won't get logged til next year)
2. go rock climbing
3. pay off all loans (loan one paid off - dec 2008, car loan paid off - july 2009)
4. start licensing exams (i may need to shoot for completing my idp forms first) (finished logging all 7 years worth of hours that I've worked since I graduated college for IDP)
5. read the pillars of the earth (160 pages to go!)
6. cook lasagna from scratch
7. buy flowers for myself at least once a quarter (nov - tulips, dec - christmas tree, march - daffodils, april - daffodils, july - lavender, dec- christmas tree, jan - daffodils, feb - tulips, april - tulips)
8. save money (so far so good!!)
9. make an amigurumi
10. work out at least 3 times a week
11. treat myself to a massage at least once a year
12. take at least one international vacation (2.5 week cambodia trip starting now)
13. take a pottery class
14. bike the burke-gilman trail (maybe able to do this one this summer)
15. spend a day in west seattle
16. do a real detox (dr natura... cant say it did much)
17. knit a scarf (closer to achieving this one thanks to Cassie)
18. purge the closet (dressers & shoe racks too)
19. visit the olympic peninsula (really went to the Olympic National Forest, but that's close)
20. go to whistler
21. go fishing
22. have dinner at canlis (really the company holiday party, but i say it counts)
23. visit the capilano suspension bridge (planned for June - a month past the big 3-0, but I think it should count)
24. watch a live nfl game (steelers would be good, but id settle for the seahawks) (maybe we'll get to a game this fall)
25. learn how to turn (all the way around) on a snowboard (still not a pro, but i made it!)
26. go camping
27. buy a gift for no reason for three friends
28. use my dutch oven at least once a month (at least when its cold)
29. get a kitty (a kitty turned into a puppy)
30. start a garden
*I've decided to add things to my list that I've done recently to make up for some of the things that won't get done before the big 3-0.
