Change Is In the Air

I know some of you actually are interested in how my balcony container garden is doing… so here’s an update & some pics. (Click on the pictures to make them bigger.)

This is my second radish planting. The first crop did pretty well. I think it was still a bit too cool when I moved them outside. I read that if they don’t have enough water or heat they get really spicy. Good thing Chris likes spicy radishes! He ate them all though, so we expanded with this planting, to the hanging planter, too, which first had a green bean in it, that broke & died, and then flowers that never took. The radishes are doing well though.

I have 5 green bean plants. Here you can see 4, with 2 of them back to back. I have my first flowers on these, even since I took the picture! They’re on the pallet because, even though you can’t really tell, the pallet is at an angle so the ones in the back can get a good amount of sunlight without being shaded.

This is the end of my spinach. I was so happy it did much better this year than last. It’s just starting to bolt, since it’s much warmer now. I plan to put in a second crop in September or so. I wish I had planted more of this, but we’re getting enough for a small salad for one of us about every other day.

My tomatoes are coming along as well. I had thought I was going to lose them because they ended up having some strange colored leaves on them, looking dried out and dying. I was told it was probably some kind of disease, as tomatoes get diseases easily. I thought to pull them up, but decided to wait and see what happened. I’m so glad I did. They’re rebounding nicely. I actually wonder if it was a bit cool on some of those nights for them as well. They’re just starting to get some flowers on them, though they’re not open yet. These are a kind of Roma tomato, I believe. They should still get another foot or so taller, but all 3 plants are doing well.

Then there’s my little grape tomato plant. I had planted a few of them in this window box, and have narrowed it down to this one and 2 smaller ones on either side. (You can see one to the right.) Those may come up as well. Not sure yet. But the big one has a few yellow flowers opening up and I’m so excited! This plant might get a little bigger… they say 1-2 feet tall.

And then there are my cucumbers. I did a little experiment. I grew 3 plants (in 2 pots) mostly outside and one plant inside. This is one of the outside ones. You can see the other pot with the 2 in the back. They just now are getting some tiny, tiny cucumber buds on them and have just put out it’s first runner. It’s so cute! They’re slow, but they’re coming along. I’m sure the not hot weather here doesn’t help anything.

And then there is my indoor plant (which, incidentally was moved outside today). This thing got to be about 4 foot high and we determined it HAD to go out. The top was starting to not get enough light anyway. Plus, I was hand pollinating all the flowers. So, it’s now outside on the balcony, climbing across the railing. It has a number of flowers and I hope that the hand pollination worked! It’s also amazing to me that it grew this tall so fast. 21 days ago it looked like this:

So, that’s it! I’m really happy with my garden & the decision to do it. It’s been fun and rewarding as it’s been a very dry spring here and there are rumors of even higher veggie prices come this fall because of it. Yea for my little garden!