Patio garden

Yikes! It's been over a year since I've updated this. I planted my containers today and I wanted to document it. We moved apartments in our building last August and we are wrapping up our time in DC. I'm hoping in our next house I'll have more than a patio 80 feet in the air-- but it's better than nothing.

I'm trying out patio tomatoes this time, hoping for a better yield. Here's today's progress shot.

Heidi turned 11 yesterday, and is still my garden buddy. She helped me eat the few baby carrots I pulled and the last of the over wintered broccoli shoots as a birthday treat.

Harvest ugh..Tuesday and Update!

 It's been too long since a post. In my defense, I share a camera with an artist in school. Certainly not a photographer, with this cheap camera, but he does like to photograph his work as he's working on it. On top of that, we spend lots of our "down" time up in Pennsylvania with my in-laws, and my sister, and my last excuse is that the weather is FINALLY nice, and I just wanted to enjoy it!

Weather has been chilly in the mid-40s to 50s, but today we got a hot 80 something!  I'd like a week or two in the 70s, but I'm not complaining.

For harvests, this picture of the lettuce was the only one I could find of what I've harvested. We've had quite a bit of lettuce, and a bunch of basil.  Thursday, I anticipate harvesting all of the spinach in preparation for fresh plants, and the need to free up some of the space for things like squash.

The rest of this post is pretty picture heavy. I just wanted to have an actual document of where things are in the balcony garden right now.

  Topsy Turvy strawberry planter has been hung, and can now rotate to get sunlight.

 This poor planter has been reseeded already, and still nothing will sprout and stick around. Not sure what's going on with it, although tonight when I went out to get these pictures, I had to remove a cigarette butt and ashes from this one. The joys of having 7 floors above us, I suppose.

 My Dwarf Tophat blueberry bush is loading up with blossoms, and today was the first day I saw any leaves starting to open up.

Early Tristar strawberries are starting to recover from some of the awful cold nights we got for a while.

 Look at all of this spinach we'll get to eat! I've got a spinach and artichoke dip recipe I want to use a lot of it for. Many of the leaves are larger than my hand.

 My Fort Laramie strawberry plants in the Topsy Turvy from Henry Fields are looking nice.  I know this isn't the ideal way to grow them, but it at least will hopefully give me a handful of berries.

I made my very first 5 gallon bucket self watering container today.  I don't have all of the necessary tools in our apartment (like a SAW to cut that PVC pipe shorter), but it will work.  I followed Jeff's instructions at Our Engineered Garden for the design.

 My wintersown plants are all making their appearances, and got a day with the lid off. The jalapeno just sprouted this week, but the tomatoes and marigolds have been there for some time. These are all just back ups, but I wanted to attempt the process.

Lastly, just some sweet little lettuce seedlings. It'll be nice to have more in a month or so!

Kitchen Garden

"Kitchen Garden" has a whole different meaning to me in the apartment. My order of strawberries came in from Henry Fields this week, and I was able to pot them up in my new "Topsy Turvy" strawberry planter. Obviously, it's not the most ideal way to grow strawberries, but my space is at a premium. I also reseeded some lettuce and radishes. A few things have sprouted, but my camera was with my husband for school, or I would have pictures.

I get to head to St. Louis this week while my husband is on Spring Break. I am looking forward to helping my friend Mandi replant her garden this week with her 4 year old.  She still remembers last year when we planted their garden.  I had her plant almost every single seed, which may have taken longer, but it seems the memory has lasted. 

I was able to harvest some basil from the Aerogarden and a little more lettuce this week, but not a whole lot else.

Pictures to come. Happy Gardening all!

Harvest Monday

I have a harvest for Harvest Monday again! The Aerogarden was needing a trim, and my hubby expressed interest in a salad from the balcony, so he got one.

We harvested a few leaves from the plant in the front left a few days ago. This is actually Red Sails, though you certainly can't tell that from the picture. It is still growing like crazy though! The plant in the  front middle is the Tristar strawberry plant. It's doing really well, and much better than the ones planted outside so far.

Overwintered lettuce and spinach pre-harvest.  The weather forecast this week gave me enough reassurance that these plants will bounce right back even with a heavy harvest.

Fresh, crisp lettuce for some delicious salads!

Side note: I understand why lettuce can be so expensive when I remember, and experience, how laborious the process of cleaning each individual leaf can be. It was still the best tasting salad we've had in a long time though!

To see what others are harvesting, head over to Daphne's Dandelions, and check in on others and their Harvest Mondays!

Sprouts

Another new adventure for me this year has been growing my own alfalfa sprouts.  This is pretty much the "instant gratification" of the gardening world- a week from start to finish.

I used a jar, a jar ring, and a cut piece of pantyhose.  The seeds are soaked for a good 8-12 hours the first day, then rinsed twice daily after that. Lastly, they get a sun bath for about 15 minutes before they end up in a container in the refrigerator.

My favorite way to have them so far has been on a tuna salad sandwich! I've been missing sprouts on Jimmy John's sandwiches! I also ordered a "crunchy bean" mix to sprout that was on sale, but something about "crunchy beans" has me less than excited to jump into those just yet.  Anyone have any experience with those?

Potting Up!

I had several days off this past week, one of the perks of having to work 12 hours shifts as a nurse.  Aside from catching up on lots of garden blogs, and researching container gardening, I potted up a lot of house plants, and my dwarf Tophat blueberry plant.  

My blueberry plant has buds all over it that I know will open soon, and I remember this was about the time the plant was delivered to me last year, so I figured it was safe to pot it up now.

I love getting to look at the root system of plants out of their pots!

Definitely full of roots! The white roots on the bottom picture look like some new growth to me, and I'm pretty sure this plant will be happy in its much bigger home for this year. Maybe I'll even see a few blueberries!

Hopefully, I won't have to go any bigger than this pot because now it's heavy!

 This houseplant is a dragon tree that I bought from Ikea little over 4 years ago.  It has survived my indoor growing skills, and is now the biggest plant we've got.  It switched places with a very sad Japanese peace lily that needed to be divided into two smaller pots.

The dragon tree's last two homes are the two pots in the picture below.

Here is the root growth. Not TOO badly root bound this time! (It has seen much worse!) Only one row of pencil thick roots on the bottom.  The peace lily on the left was a gift from my husband in our first year of marriage. It has also survived my poor houseplant care, and I believe the division I made is the 4th or 5th extension of the original plant that is long gone! The little plant on the right is a new addition also purchased from IKEA. We'll see if it fares better!

The dragon tree's new home.

Strawberry Fever

Strawberry fever got me this weekend at Home Depot. I already ordered 25 Fort Laramie everbearing strawberry plants from Henry Fields, but couldn't resist buying a few more plants at Home Depot.  

I stopped in at a Home Depot just to see what they had in terms of seeds and plants this time of year being that I'm in a different zone now. I found their current lettuce/cabbage/broccoli/strawberry stand had some plants that were seriously hit by some frost. I asked an employee if they were marking any of the plants down because I figured I could save some of the strawberry plants, and would happily take them off of their hands for a reduced price. I was disappointed to find out that they are subcontracted through Bonnie's plants, and Home Depot has no authority to reduce the price. They said that Bonnie's will just throw them away.  

I left empty handed, disappointed, and with a new "need" for strawberry plants. The "need" grew, and I headed with the hubby to a closer Home Depot the next day.  Their plants were in excellent condition, and I reasoned that I was planning on being out of town for the "estimated delivery date" of my strawberries from Henry Fields, and wanted some back ups. I also know (as evidence of the whole cart of half dead plants at the first Home Depot) that they don't always take the greatest care of the plants at Home Depot after they've arrived. That means that the earlier I can take care of my own "backups" the better!

I brought home 10 Tristar bareroot plants, and one established Quinalt plant with dreams of luscious strawberries.

I planted 6 in new dollar store planters to add to my balcony rails and three in the terra cotta planter that I borrowed from a cousin for my tomato plant when I moved here early last year. I'll be returning it to her with these three strawberry plants as a thank you. The last one I swapped out with a lettuce seedling from the Aerogarden and planted it there.  This will be a science experiment of sorts (nothing fancy), but I also bought a topsy turvy strawberry planter while at Home Depot, so I'll plant my Henry Fields plants in that. 

Yesterday, I e-mailed the customer service at Henry Fields explaining that I'd be out of town for the estimated delivery date of my strawberry plants, and that if it was possible, I'd rather have my plants earlier than risk them sitting in a mailroom for a week.  What do you know, my estimated delivery date is now this week.  Talk about service!  All of these "back ups" for nothing.  I love strawberries though (and so does my sister in PA, who will be benefitting from this fever of mine with some plants of her own!)

Gardening Bug

My gardening bug has me again.  This season is a new zone for me, and a new (quite a bit smaller) garden in containers. I've been researching and learning a lot of things from scratch. I'm going from a supposed 5B (I always planted sooner than recommended) to 7A.  The last frost dates, however, indicate a later last frost date here in Alexandria than in St. Louis. Besides those differences, everything is in containers, and has its own microclimate being that I'm 9 stories up, and actually tucked away from much, if any, wind.

My lettuce, spinach, and green onions have all overwintered well on the balcony.  I frequently run out for a few clippings of spinach and scallions to add to my morning omelet.  I gave most of the lettuce a good trim a week or so ago to clean out the burnt leaves, but all of the plants seem to be putting out plenty of growth.

My Aerogarden is in full swing again. It's about time to harvest some lettuce! I am growing three kinds of lettuce, two basil plants, and a strawberry plant in my Aerogarden right now. I found an excellent Thai recipe for Red Coconut Curry, and it uses a lot of basil. I have never had much of a use for the basil I've grown, but the $2.49 I've been spending on a small container for this recipe meant that basil was a priority for the Aerogarden planting!

Here is a lone lettuce seedling I pulled from the Aerogarden when I bought some strawberry plants, and decided to try one out.  I couldn't bear to just trash this, so I'll eventually transplant it outside.

Planted so far, I've got radish, spinach, lettuce, and snow peas. I also grabbed a few strawberry plants from Home Depot this weekend, and I'm trying my hand at some wintersowing.  I decided that since my apartment doesn't really allow for the room to have my full light set up (nor plant many tomatoes/peppers), I'd go this route with a few varieties.  I ordered a few plants from Henry Fields, (and will have to share some of those even!) but decided back up plants never hurt.  I threw in some jalapeño, Green Zebra tomatoes, marigolds, Sweet 100 cherry tomatoes, and some saved Cherokee Purple seeds that came from a tomato I got from seed given to me by Jeff at Our Engineered Garden.   All of those seeds went into a divided gallon milk jug and a water bottle, and now they're just waiting.  We'll see how they do! I like the idea of not really having to harden the seedlings off when the time comes.

Well, this post has gotten wordier than planned, so that's all for now. 

A New Computer for the New Year

We have a new computer! Our old macbook officially died, and we have been without for a few months now!  With the use of the computers in the business center at our apartment, as well as at school or work, we've made do, but blogging was put way on the back burner.

Looking forward to blogging again soon. I'm currently on a night shift rotation, so the pictures I would get right now wouldn't be very interesting. I still have lots of salad growing on the patio, and the occasional snow peas that Heidi gets as a treat. It'll be time to clean up and start fresh in no time! The weather here is quite a bit milder than it was in St. Louis.  I haven't quite found the energy to do much with the garden, but it's there, and growing slowly without my help.

Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year to all in the gardening world!

First Snow Pea!

I did it! I successfully planted a fall planting of snow peas in time for them to actually produce peas! I am at a bit of an advantage due to my summer garden withdrawal I was dealing with, but I did it nevertheless. Usually, by the time I'm ready to start thinking about planting again, it's about a month late.




I'm pretty sure this is what it's going to be like to have kids. Always sharing your treasures. Heidi ran into the screen door, wanting to join me on my pea harvest. I'm not sure if she could smell them, or what. She LOVES peas. I split this one with her.

Cotton Aphids and Ladybugs

Cotton Aphids have made their way to my balcony garden. We moved a watermelon plant with us (which also brought some squash bugs) but later got a huge infestation of cotton aphids. I decided at that point, to get go ahead and get rid of the plant. I planted two zucchini plants afterwards in nearby planters, and the cotton aphids have found a new home. 

I was spraying the plants with a dish soap mixture, when I discovered a ladybug taking residence.

Even better than the single lady bug helping me out, she laid several different patches of eggs. 

I'm now getting to watch the life cycle of these ladybugs. I have quick spraying the zucchini plants, knowing that ladybugs can eat up to 50 aphids a day. I'm looking forward to getting to watch this process even more than I'm looking forward to the one, maybe two zucchini I'll get from these plants before frost.

Ladybug larvae:

The Balcony Garden and the Move

Our move to D.C. started back in June, where I ventured alone to start my new job. I got an amazing job as a mother/baby nurse, but they wanted a June start date. We had not anticipated moving until August, and our house needed to be dealt with before we both were able to move. 

I spent the first six weeks of my time here in Woodbridge, VA with my husband's cousin and her roommate, who graciously offered me a bedroom and allowed Heidi to join me. I got to try about five ripened cherry tomatoes before our move, and had to leave the rest of my fully planted summer garden. 

July marked our 5th wedding anniversary, and my husband surprised me with a grocery bag full of tomatoes. He brought anything that looked like is was about to ripen. I was able to share some delicious tomatoes with my new housemates, and couldn't have gotten a more appreciated gift.

I brought along a sucker from one of my last Cherokee Purple seeds from Jeff at Our Engineered Garden. It went through a lot (including over 100 degree heat by being left in a car in PA during my move here). My husband also later brought our watermelon plants in a container, and my dwarf tophat blueberry plant. 

Planting my balcony garden was a pretty high priority with the move, and I had it seeded within the first week of our moving into our apartment in Alexandria. 

Here are some recent pictures of the garden:

So far, I've got my Cherokee Purple tomato plant, Zucchini, cilantro, radishes, green onions, garlic chives, blueberry plant, snow peas, spinach, and several types of lettuce.

Peas, lettuce, and spinach

I recently removed the watermelon plants from this bucket, and replanted with lettuce and spinach seedling which are making their appearance.

First pea blossom! (Strange to see a CAR in the background below the plants)

Romaine lettuce

Red Sails lettuce seedling growing on the left from Daphne at Daphne's Dandelions, radish seedlings on the right

The radishes (and hidden spinach and lettuce) in white planter near the railing had originally been in the other over-the-rail hanger, but with watering, it was bending the wires which had me too nervous to put it back. So until Spring, when Dollar Tree carries the other planters again, that side is going to be an empty eyesore. 

This is the first (and only) Cherokee Purple tomato to pollinate on my plant. I didn't think it'd happen after all that it has been through, but I'm excited to see it even though it probably won't have time to ripen before frost.

And here is the second salad we're going to enjoy from the balcony garden!