Steak & Potatoes

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Christmas Meal

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Christmas Dinner

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A Well Watered Garden

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Longterm Garden Planning

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The more that I look at the Balcony Garden, the more I think that rather than merely going for "production" in both quantity and monetary value (lol, which hasn't worked too well), the way to make the garden the most valuable to myself would be for it to produce me with my own salads a few times a week, for around six months of the year. I have only four large rubber-maid containers out there at the moment, but I'm pretty sure I could add another three if I turned them lengthwise. 
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Left: Carrots, Strawberries, Zucchini & Cucumber / Right: Tomatoes & Nasturtiums

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In the back corner, I could keep things pretty much as they are now, filled with tomatoes, zucchini, cucumbers and carrots. They all grow fairly well together, and also easily add to a fresh salad... but if I tried to grow potatoes back there again, like I did last year, they would interfere with eachother too much (Potatoes & Cucumbers are not Companion Plants). Plus, unless you are making potato salad, it's not a very "salad-like" vegetable - not too mention the problem of having to rotate your containers for the next three years, to ensure that more root-vegetables don't grow in it again before the soil replenishes. Too many root-vegetables out there, and you'll end up damaging your crops with scab and other such things after a few years... which makes root-vegetables very unnattractive to me, considering the other things I could grow instead which are arguably of higher value.
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Left: Peppers, Nasturtiums & Tomato / Right: Kale, Radish, Watermelon & Salad Greens

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Up front, I could have another container where the peppers are, and another in between the two already up there, if they were turned length-wise. Then I could start off the season with three full pots of kale and find a few other things to grow during the hottest months, and in the end of the year, plant ALL the big pots full of kale. That would make for quite a bit of kale - although, I think from now on, the only kale I'm going to grow will be the Red Russian variety. It only takes 45 to 60 days to grow, while most other varieties take around 80 to 90 days. That extra month, at both ends of the year, is quite a significant amount of growing time.
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15oz Kale Harvested from One Pot

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Plus, last year I produced 20oz of Kale out of only one pot, but this year I've pulled out only 15oz, although, as you can see, I still have another full pot to harvest. But, with proper planning and Red Russian Kale's significantly shorter growth period, perhaps three crops of kale could be pulled out a year, rather than two. Imagine if I could grow four pots in the spring, then perhaps another seven pots in the fall time - that would be a heck of a lot of kale, making quite a bit of salads and stamp-pot.
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Left: Sprouting Salad Greens

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If I expanded the garden with three more rubber-maid containers, I'd have to find another place for all the pots on the floor. Of course, I still have the railing to hang containers off of, but between the cost of the containers and especially the hangers ($40+ per container, plus $15 to $20 for the container... plus soil = $60/container), it is just cost-prohibitive to put six or seven containers on the railing - at least compared to the value I got from the rubber-maid containers, which grow far more crops but only cost about $18/19 each to set up, including the soil! When I look at that glass partition on the balcony, I think it would be much cheaper to rig up something alongside it that could hold containers - heck, I could even build a shelf myself, and I'm sure it would be a lot cheaper than spending several hundred dollars just to hang containers off the railing. It sure would be nice though, to have several containers, perhaps planted 2 weeks apart, continually sprouting with enough salad greens to have a fresh salad three or four times a week.
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Here's how I think a season of crops could work (RM = Rubber Maid Container, PB = Planter Box):

RM #1 (Front) = Peppers x 8plants, Beans, Kale (Fall)
RM #2 (Front) = Kale (Spring), Beans, Cantaloupe (Summer), Kale (Fall)
RM #3 (Front) = Kale (Spring), Beans, Watermelon (Summer), Kale (Fall) 
RM #4 (Front) = Kale (Spring), Beans, Brocolli (Summer), Kale (Fall)
RM #5 (Side) = Kale (Spring), Cucumbers, Califlower, Pumpkin(?) or Kale (Late Fall?)
RM #6 (Side) = Radishes, Cucumbers, Carrots (Spring), Carrots (Summer), Kale (Fall)
RM #7 (Side) = Radishes, Cucumbers, Zucchini, Kale (Fall)

Front Corner Pot #1 = Tomato & Nasturtiums
Front Corner Pot #2 = Tomato & Nasturtiums
Back Corner Pot #3 = Tomato & Nasturtiums
Back Corner Pot #4 = Tomato & Nasturtiums

PB #1 (Railing - Side/Inside) = Salad Greens, Mustard Greens (Fall)
PB #2 (Railing - Front/Inside) = Salad Greens, Mustard Greens (Fall)
PB #3 (Railing - Front/Inside) = Salad Greens, Mustard Greens (Fall)
PB #4 (Railing - Front/Inside) = Salad Greens, Mustard Greens (Fall)
PB #5 (Railing - Side/Outside) = Strawberries
PB #6 (Railing - Front/Outside) = Strawberries
PB #7 (Railing - Front/Outside) = Strawberries
PB #8 (Railing - Front/Outside) = Strawberries
PB #9 (Place on Floor)= Salad Greens, Mustard Greens (Fall)
Hanging Pot & Various Small Pots on BBQ & Floor = Parsely, Mint, Dill, Chives, Garlic, Echinacea (Fall)
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That would total as follows:
1 x RM Harvest of 8-10 Pepper Plants 
10 x RM Harvests of Kale
1 x RM Harvest of Cantaloupe
1 x RM Harvest of Watermelon
1 x RM Harvest of Brocolli
1 x RM Harvest of Cauliflower
2 x RM Harvests of Carrots
1 x RM Harvest of Zucchini (2 Plants?)
+/- 12 to 16 Pole Bean Plants
+/- 9 to 12 Cucumber Plants
+ 4 x Tomatoes & Nasturtiums
+ 5 x PB's of Salad Greens Rotating All-Season
+ Radishes Planted where/when Space Available All-Season
+ Strawberries & Herbs Producing All-Season
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If I could get the little balcony ripping like that, it would not only look extremely cool but it ought to produce easily enough for me to be eating good, healthy garden salads on a regular basis throughout most of the year.

First Salads from the Garden

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The lettuce and kale have been growing gangbusters out on the balcony - especially the kale. Kale has definitely proven to be the most easy thing to grow so far. In fact, as I was sitting out there pondering on the magnificence of my green thumb, I started speculating that perhaps what I should do next year is turn those two containers length-wise, and buy a third one to stuff in between. That way, I could plant a new container each month - starting in March, April and May - and since it takes around three months to mature, every month I'd have a full pot of kale to pick leaves from for salads or to make a couple of pots of stamp-pot. Since kale is such an excellent cool-weather plant, I suspect I could almost get three crops a year - with a pot maturing each month.
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Kale (Left) and Lettuce (Left and Right)

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The same as the lettuce - it would be ideal to get a couple more containers growing, and space their planting so that there is always some ready to harvest throughout the growing season. The pot of lettuce on the bottom left is a pretty small container and I've already harvested two salads from it, but I only planted one row in it - although I could have easily planted two rows. In the other container of lettuce - on the right - I planted three rows, and I suspect they will do just fine. I'm a little leary about growing lettuce out on that deck during the hottest months of the summer, though. There's really not a lot of shade out there and it gets pretty darn hot. Well, I'll try to keep these two pots going alternately throughout the summer to see and if they do okay, I'll work out a better system next year. This fall I'd also like to plant some mustard greens, since they are also a cool weather plant like kale, and can easily grow well into the fall. In fact, there are few things I'd like to try and grow this fall and winter - kale of course - but also some other cool weather plants I've been researching a bit, like echinacea and garlic.
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The tomato I didn't grow myself, it was already in the fridge - but do you see those radishes there? Heh, okay, my radish harvest is still pretty pathetic - only about one ounce, but it's better than last years! (How could it not be?). I suspect the problem this year was that one night of frost back in April. After that, the plant leaves never really grew much more, although the radishes beneath developed a bit more - but still not to a satisfactory size for most of them.
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Another Pathetic Radish Harvest!

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I think in the future, I'm no longer going to dedicate a full container to radishes. I planted a few more a week or so ago in a bare patch in my carrot container. There's only 6 or 7 plants in there, but they grow fast and don't really take up too much space. I suspect that a person could easily grow radishes all year long simply by stuffing a couple of them in between the other plants here and there - like in your tomato containers, there's plenty of room once they get going to hold a few radishes beneath them. 
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The Raspberry plant is perking up! (Left) - Carrots, Cucumbers, Strawberries and soon, Zucchini (Right)

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Six of the cucumbers I planted along the edges of the two pots have come up as well, plus the two I still had inside when the frost killed my transplants back in April. Hopefully, with eight plants, I can fill in that screen mesh behind the containers with a good crop of cucumbers. I also planted two zucchini seeds in the far right container. I don't know if two is too many, but we'll find out. I think a big zucchini plant in the back corner of the balcony would look really lush and cool. The tomato containers as well have been supplemented by planting a few nasturtiums in each one - I seen just today that the first few have popped up through the dirt.
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Peppers (Left) and Tomatoes (Right)

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Although I mentioned possibly expanding the kale operation next year, that is not going to be the plan for this year. I've been trying to figure out something that I can grow in those two pots once the kale comes out in a couple of weeks, and I'd like to plant something that grows well in full sun and high heat - so that kind of removed things like broccoli and caulifower, which are cool weather plants. Instead, I decided to try something really "summery:" watermelon and cantaloupe. I think I could only grow one watermelon plant in a container, since the package says they are supposed to be planted five feet apart, lol. The cantaloupe I hope can grow with three or four in a container. I don't know, maybe this will turn into a flop - but I'll find out by the end of the summer. Also, as you can see, I bought some Miracle Grow plant food. Last year I didn't use any fertilizer at all except for compost, but last year I also didn't have too great of a harvest to brag about. Hopefully, this fertilizer does as advertized and significantly increases the garden's production.
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Pests on the Balcony

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It's been a little while since I posted an update on the Balcony of Eden, so I figured I'd better get my ass in gear in case I lose my ever-widening audience! 
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The past few weeks have not been kind to me. One of the neighbours had pigeons nesting on their roof, and now that the little buggers are all hatched and half-grown, the entire corner of the apartment complex is plagued by these pesky birds. They are warbling all night, crapping on everyone's decks, and in my case, eating my fricking beans like there's no tomorrow!
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Death to all the pigeons that ate my beans!

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When the beans flowered and then began to fruit, I was really excited and thought perhaps I'd bring in 100 or more beans. I was planning on building a root cellar and everything. Then the pigeons came, and within two days ate almost every damn sprouting bean that I had! They left me three beans - yes, only three! Stupid birds didn't even let them grow. I seen the beans come out in one or two days, just tiny little sprouts, and the pigeons came and gobbled them up before they even had a chance to grow. What a disappointment! I went to Wal-Mart and bought one of them fake-owl scarecrows... which seems to work, but it was too late to save the bean crop. What a waste.
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Lettuce completely destroyed by worms.

To further disappoint, the lettuce which I planted a month ago had finally started to really grow... until the one morning I came out and they were just dead. And I mean dead. Full of life the one day, completely dead and flat on the ground the next. I just couldn't figure it out... until the next day when I had a closer look and seen these little worms amongst the leaves. They were pretty gross looking - almost like maggots - but they're not because they move along like inch worms. I looked around online and figure they were some kind of cabbage worm that will later turn into moths. It was incredible, these little buggers. Not only did they kill the lettuce overnight, but over the next three or four days, they ate every last bit of it! I mean, there's nothing left! I wish I would have taken a picture each day, but I had no idea they would simply devour the lettuce like that. Now they're all dead because there's nothing left to eat. Ha ha! Who's the smarty pants now?
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Cucumbers starting to fruit

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As for the rest of the garden, it is coming along fine. I had a pile of cucumbers flower - over twenty - and of the several that fruited there are five or six pretty good sized ones starting to form. I don't know if the smaller ones will continue to grow, as they are obviously now lagging the larger ones.
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Don't need any cucumbers dropping down there, do we?

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You'll notice that the cucumbers are no longer attached to the railing as they were last month. I had to move them because there are some people living on the bottom floor who have little kids and they set their patio up as a playground. As I watched my cucumbers flower and fruit, I started to get worried that as they grew larger... what if one of them fell off the vine and dropped four stories onto some poor kids head? So, I transferred the cucumber plants to some large sticks I had, and later also bought a trellis for them to attach to. It doesn't look as nice as before, but it's better than becoming the guy who killed some kid with a falling cucumber.   
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Raspberries looking healthy again... but now the blueberries are hurting!

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In a strange turn of events, my raspberry plant which I was sure was going to die last month has perked right up with signs of new life. But now my blueberry plant is suffering the death look in almost the exact same fashion as the raspberries were last month. Neither of these two plants produce enough fruit worth mentioning. I hope they both survive and work out better next year. Time will tell, but for this year, they were not worth the money. ($60 between the two of them!)
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Nasturtiums

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The nasturtiums I planted last month have come up nicely, but no flowers yet. I should have planted these all in one pot, or better yet, I should have planted them in with the tomato plants, since they are companion plants. Out of the package of 20 seeds which only actually contained 19, seven of them came up. Not a blazing success, but they do fill in quite well as they grow. Still, I shouldn't have used two pots for them.
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Peppers starting to flower

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The peppers have finally flowered and, if you look closely on the right, have just begun to fruit. So far, out of the five pepper plants, four have flowered. These things sure do flower late in the year - the same as last year when they flowered so late I didn't think they would at all - but then, around the end of July or beginning of August, bam! And they were ready to pick by September. This year seems like it will be a repeat.
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Cherry Tomatoes

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The cherry tomatoes are coming along alright, what few of them grew this year. Usually I have oodles of cherry tomatoes, but this year it looks like I'll hardly even get a handful.
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The best damn tomato on earth!

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But my, oh my, look at that one nice, big, juicy tomato, eh?

EH?

Isn't that beautiful?

I plucked that work of art and ate it all by itself, with only a little salt & pepper added. It tasted as good as it looked.

Good job on that one, Mr. Gardener!
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