How does your garden grow?

Brrr....

I just got back from checking our balcony garden with Eldest again. We're having a major wind storm right now, and our balcony has virtually no shelter from it. The wind just seems to whip around inside the side walls rather than blowing over them. I've had to take my rail planters off and tuck them against a wall. Several of my basil have been damaged by the wind - bent right over right at the base of the stems. We'll see tomorrow if they survive the onslaught. They're still being blown around some, but not as much as on the rail. I even had to move another planter that was already on the ground. My second sowing of spinach was literally being crushed by the wind.

Speaking of spinach, I'm going to have to harvest the first sowing pretty much right away. It's starting to bolt, and I don't want them getting all leggy and going to seed.

It sure is great having the garden. We've been able to make a couple of salads with the small greens I've been thinning out. We can also harvest just a few leaves for sandwiches as needed. Eldest was waxing poetic over the spinach, cream cheese and a bit of shredded cheddar sandwich she had earlier today.

The rosemary is growing a lot more slowly than I expected. Perhaps it's being shaded too much by the tarragon, which is growing much faster than I expected. We've already used the tarragon to make a lovely butter. The parsley has also seen use already, as well as a few chives. The basil isn't ready for use yet, though I could probably start using the thyme. The carrots were growing slowly until we had a thunderstorm and accompanying short deluge one evening. They grew an inch overnight after that. I look forward to when they're big enough to start thinning - can't let the little ones go to waste. ;-)

This summer, we're learning a lot about what we can expect to do for next year. While the large amounts of direct sunlight was something I knew we'd be dealing with, I didn't expect that wind would be such an issue. Not to this extent. This will need to be taken into account in deciding if we'll plant anything with height. I had been thinking peas or beans in planters with a lattice back, which I've seen in stores this summer, but with this wind, I am no longer sure they won't be ripped apart.

We still need to decide if we'll be signing up for a garden plot for next year. It'd be great to plant some corn and heirloom varieties of potatoes.

I'm going to have to stop trying to write, though. The family keeps trying to talk to me. *L*

This is getting rediculous.

After we finally got to some seasonal temperatures, I thought my days ... er... nights of bringing my planters in for the night were over. Instead, I've had to start bringing them in again, and we've had to turn our furnace back on because the house was getting too friggin' cold. Mind you, it could be worse. We haven't actually dipped below freezing, though we've been close, nor have we had snow, like in other areas not too far from us. Talking to my sister in Manitoba, she was telling me she's never had such a late start on her garden, nor has she ever seen conditions so poor. She's been living and gardening where she is for 30 years. That's saying a lot, considering how bad the summer of 2005 was, with almost constant rain, cold and flooding all over the province.

On the plus side, I believe I now have the last of the containers and soil I need for this year's balcony garden. Along with the herbs I'd planted before, my salad greens are in a pair of shallow storage bins. I've picked up another large, deep container for my carrots, and another rail planter, which I think I will use partly for a few more herbs that still haven't been transplanted (I can't bring myself to toss the extras) and successive sowing for my salad greens.

At this point, I don't want to add any more. Our balcony is going to be renovated, but I have no idea when. They're going to have to do a lot of work, and everything on our balcony will have to be moved out completely. Even the rail planters. I look forward to figuring out how to use the vertical space on our side walls, once they've been fixed up. Peas, for sure. Maybe some wax beans. I'd love to find a way to do some fruits or berries, too. All that is for next year, though.

Beyond that, things have been going well. Eldest decided she needed a new shoulder bag to replace the purse I'd made for her a few years back. She wanted something to fit a specific size of drawing pad, as well as have lots of pockets inside and out. She worked out all the dimensions and figured out the design she wanted, working completely without an actual pattern.


This is the final product, though it's not quite finished. She wants to add embellishments to the edge of the front flap for weight, as well as adding a closure for her Blackberry pocket. Yes, my daughter now has her own Blackberry. She inherited my husband's old one, as he had to upgrade his. We've been wanting to get another cell phone for the girls so that we can give them a bit more Independence, but they had no interest in actually having one (at this point, there's no need for Youngest to have her own phone, too).

Anyhow... back to the bag. In making it, I demonstrated how to attach the side and bottom panels around a corner, discussed a few details, then hand stitched the opening left for turning after the lining was attached. Other than that, Eldest did everything on her own. She did a fantastic job.

I've been lax with our library lists again. I'll done one soon, but not until after we've picked up the stuff that's waiting on hold at the moment. It's always "fun" to come home from a library trip, only to find an email waiting, saying more holds were ready. Funny thing was, I'd checked the holds area, just in case, and found one of my holds in a cart at the end of the shelf, sorted and waiting to be moved. Oh, well.

In a very short time - possibly next week, but more likely the week after, we will be reunited with our piano. It's going to be good to have it back. It's going to take up a lot of space and is really heavy, but it's got a lot of family history - not to mention gorgeous sound. It's a 200 or so yr old upright grand. Open up the top and take off the front panel, and the sound is just amazing. I do hope the neighbours under us don't mind a few sour notes, though, as I get used to working a keyboard again. I learned to play organ, not piano, but notes are notes, and the keys are the same. One thing's for sure. Once we've got this in, we'd better not have to move again for a very long time!! It costs an awful lot to have a piano moved, and this is something there's NO WAY we'd do on our own.

Finally...

This afternoon, I finally planted our lettuces and spinach. Only the carrots are left, and I still need a deeper pot and soil for those.

For the last while, the weather has been terrible on our poor little balcony garden. Many days, it was too cold to take the planters outside at all, and certainly not overnight. I left them out too long one night, and almost lost them. The chives handled it well and the parsley seems to have recovered, if a bit rough around the leaf edges, but the thyme looks like it's having difficulties, and I will most likely have to replace 3 our of 5 basil. I'm glad I still have a few extras in my starter tray. The rosemary is growing so slowly, it's hard to say how much it was effected, but the tarragon looks to have sprung back nicely.

We're seeing some higher temperatures today - finally getting into the ranges expected for this time of year. I should even be able to leave my planters out all night.

As for my greens, I ended up not getting planters at all. At least not "proper" planters. I was looking to get a couple more planters that fit over the balcony rail, but those are quite narrow and would not have held as much as I wanted to plant. While walking through the store, however, I noticed that some rectangular storage bins were available at about the same depth as the planters (since the planters fit over the rail, most of the space isn't actually that deep). So instead of getting two narrow rail planters for almost $12 each, I got a couple of larger storage bins for under $5 each. I just poked a bunch of holes in the bottoms for drainage, then placed them on their upside down lids to catch any drips.

Each bin was large enough to fit a 30L bag of the special herb and vegetable soil I had. One of them was sown with just a red and green leaf lettuce mix. There should be room to do a successive sowing in 2 weeks or so. The other has half spinach, half romaine lettuce.

The big challenge for these, once they're sprouted, will be keeping them from getting too hot and the soil drying out too quickly. Direct sunlight for as long as we get on our balcony is a bit much for these greens. I should be able to move them around to take advantage of shade as needed, though. We have a low wall on each side of our balcony. One provides some shade in the morning, the other in the evening. If that's not enough, I can slide them under our patio swing.

As for the carrots, I'm not quite sure how to go. I want to plant quite a few, but I don't want to have too large a pot. I'll probably get a couple of smaller deep pots instead of one large one. I also need to keep in mind that our balcony is going to be completely renovated sometime soon. The floor, which is wood, is covered with a waterproof membrane, then a special indoor/outdoor carpet. The previous tenant had hammered so many holes into the floor - something that's not allowed on these balconies since, obviously, they destroy the waterproof membrane - there's a real concern for rot. It feels pretty solid, but there may be patches that will need to be cut out and repaired. The rails themselves are showing signs of rot near the bottoms, and one of the side walls has damaged siding that will need to be repaired somehow.

I'm hoping that they choose something other than black when they replace the indoor/outdoor carpet. The black gets so hot, I had to put on my husband's grandpa slippers (which have a thick rubber sole) because my bare feet were burning.

Which reminds me of something the girls and I saw the other day that was really interesting. A wonderful example of radiative heat. At the end of our street is an historic building of red brick. All along one side is a row of trees. I don't know the name of them, but along with their new leaves, they are growing long sprays of flower buds. With the cold weather we've been having, these clusters of buds are very small and still covered with a green protective "skin" on the outside. Only on the largest buds could a hint of whitish pink petal be seen, and only if you were looking for it.

Except for the ones against the brick wall. Because brick absorbs the sun's heat so well, then radiates that heat out again will into the night, the flower clusters next to the wall are in full, glorious bloom.

A perfect example of how just one thing can create a micro-climate.

It's a start!

It is with great satisfaction that I can finally say we've started on our balcony garden! After all this time, we can finally do it. Not that there's anything on the balcony itself, yet. We'll need to pick up pots and soil and figure out where we want to put things, which will have to work around the other uses we'll have for the balcony, like the bbq that we need to replace and the seating we want to arrange. We now have a south facing balcony, with long hours of sunlight, which fixes one problem we had before. More important, though, we expect to actually *be* here long enough to start doing stuff like this!

For now, I've got a tray of 72 starter pellets planted with cooking herbs. I've got 6 of rosemary and another 6 of tarragon (which Eldest wanted in particular - she loves cookinig with tarragon). These can grow pretty big, so if they all sprout, it'll be more than we actually need. I'm sure, if it becomes an issue, we'll have neighbours willing to enjoy them. ;-) I planted a dozen pellets with chives, and another dozen of thyme. That should be enough for drying, too. Finally, I planted 18 pellets each of parsley (plain leaved) and basil (Sweet Genovese), as these are herbs we would use larger quantities of. The entire tray now sits on top of an aquarium that we have, but won't be setting up for a while yet, which gives them enough light for sprouting while keeping them out of reach of the cats! :-D

Along with the herbs, I've got some greens that will be sown directly into their pots, which I still need to pick up. I got some spinach (Epinard), romain lettuce and mixed red and green leaf lettuce. These I will have to find a way to keep in the area of the balcony that gets more shade. Which means we'll have to figure out where to put the patio swing we inherited with the unit. I also got some carrots - Amsterdam 3 - Sprint, an heirloom variety that's supposed to be good for container gardens. I think that should be good enough for this year. Depending on how things work out, I'd like to increase the vegetables a lot more. Perhaps some peas and beans - we have a wall we can train them up against - or even some strawberries, raspberries or grapes. There are some dwarf varieties of other veggies I'd like to try out.

When I picked up my seeds, I talked to one of the staff about container gardening on our balcony. He was a very young guy, and passionate about gardening. He told me how a lot more people have been getting the raspberry, blackberry and grapes for growing on their balconies. I guess it takes a recession to get a lot of people thinking about stuff like this. I think that'll make it better overall, as more varieties of seeds, etc. are becoming available to meet the demand. This is the first year I've seen vegetable seed varieties specifically for container gardening. With so many people living in apartments and condos instead of houses with yards, it's good to see these things available.

My big challenge is going to be pots. I'll be using the balcony rail a lot - if I can get the type of pots I'm after, I should be able to do all the herbs on or over the rail itself. I'll need shallow, wide tray-like pots for the leaf lettuces, deep pots for the carrots, and either wider pots or several of them for the romaine.

It should be fun!