Saturday 19 April 2014

Grow Grow Gadget Garden!

I went to the Minter Country Garden today and picked up some more plants and seeds for the balcony garden - plus three more bags of soil to lug up to the apartment. I've never really grown plants from seed before so we'll have to see how it goes. I bought Hot Pepper Mix, Sweet Pepper Mix, Climbing Beans, Carrots, Radish and Cucumber.
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The peppers I should have read a little more closely because it says on the package that they have to be started indoors and won't be ready to transplant for around three weeks. So now I have eight cups filled with dirt and seeds on my window sill, seeing if they will grow. As I've said before, I've had mixed luck with peppers, but I've always bought them as seedlings first. Hey, why not take the plant I have the most difficulty with and make them even more difficult by starting them from seed? Oh well, if they don't work out, I'll just have to buy some seedlings in a few weeks. I really like peppers, but after two years of trying if I don't get some production this year I suspect it might be wise to try something else that's easier to grow.
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I'm really excited about the dwarf blueberry bush I bought for $25. That's it in the above top left picture. I hope it works out well. It's supposed to grow one to two feet high in a compact spherical mound. In the container on the above right I planted a row of cucumbers close to railing (I'm going to try and grow them upwards) and I also planted two rows of carrots in the same container. 
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In the next container I have climbing beans and radishes planted. The companion plant chart says that the two go well together. Radishes are really fast growing and should be ready to harvest in around three weeks. When they come out, I'll plant some more carrots in their place. Then, after the carrots come out in the summer, maybe I'll grow some more radishes before the fall.

In the above right picture is a dwarf thornless raspberry shrub I bought for $35. It is similar to the blueberry bush (same company) and should grow two to three feet high in a dense, compact mound. I also seen that they had grape vines for $40 that were designed for container growing. I really want a grape vine to grow on the back wall. I just love grapes so much. I remember when I was a kid living on Vancouver Island, at one of my friend's house they had an entire wall covered with grape vines. We'd go there after school and just hang-out and eat grapes until we were sick of them... and that took a long time because like I said, I love grapes. But, I didn't buy the grape vine. I had already dropped $100 on the blueberry and raspberry shrubs, the seeds and the soil, and that was enough for one day.
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There's the potatoes, which I moved off to the side, and behind them, in the corner against the wall is a tomato plant and the container with kale.

Grow, grow gadget garden!

Now that the main part of the garden is underway, I can look at filling in small spaces with some more pots filled with herbs or flowers. In the coming weeks, I want to start hitting garage sales looking for a patio-table umbrella which I can lash to the railing, to provide some much needed shade on hot summer days. Also, I want to see if I can find some sort of shelving I can put against the balcony's glass-wall partition, so that next year I can go more vertical.

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