First Harvests

From the garden: A mix of turnip and chard seedlings from thinning our plantings today. Very yummy when we steamed them for dinner!


From the balcony, a scented bouquet. Clockwise, from top left is rosemary, lemon balm (in the 'center'). cilantro, chives, orange mint, and basil. All the herbs were dried for later.

Strawberry season is in full swing, but I don't have pictures because they don't last long enough! Strawberry shortcake desserts, and we have put up 3 dozen half-pints of jams plus dried some as well. And I'll likely put up more - very yummy!

Spring Planting

We prepped the balcony for planting today. The seeds will actually go in on Tuesday, which according to our local planting calendar is a better day for that.



We swept, hung the manger planters, and re-arranged the furniture. The lowest level of pots (black & grey) will be sweet potatoes - I've started a sweet potato in water to grow my slips, since I only need two or three. The two pots above the black pot have herbs in them: Orange mint above and lemon balm below. The one on the grey pot will be planted with collards, as will be another 12" pot near the rosemary. The planters will be planted with cold-tolerant beets, spinach, and a lettuce mix.

The Swiss Chard was planted last spring and survived our winter just fine. I'll add more to this pot, and start adding leaves from them to my spring salads, too.

Lemon Balm:

A Saturday Afternoon

Peanut brittle from the farmer's market, mittens for my love, homemade banana muffins, first harvest of Swiss chard, and cotton fabric for a new project underneath all.

Waking up the Garden

I went out this weekend and checked on the garden.

The rosemary is OK, and I'll give it a bit of a trim later. One of the chives plants came up; the other has 3 leaves. We’ll see how it does. The parsley barely survived and was finally moved somewhere out of the wind where it will still get light. Somehow, I don't think it liked being in a 4" pot on the coldest, windiest corner of the balcony.

I planted Red Ruby Swiss Chard, overseeded with spinach, and put lettuce in another pot. Basil is started in the house, and everything else is on the balcony. I'll put out more lettuce & spinach in a week or two, try to keep those on continuous harvests. I know that the cool balcony let me keep harvesting lettuce into June or July.

I’m in zone 7b and keep forgetting I can start seed indoors in February here…

small acreage

85% of the world’s farms are small farms, smaller than 5 hectares

from Casaubon's Book (blog)

5 hectares is 12.35 acres. I've heard that called micro-farming before, like it's a rare thing. But at the same time, it's amazing how much potential there is in a small acreage. Please read the article the quote is from. Good information, and great for getting one thinking.

Independance Day Week 12

IndepenDANCE because yes, it is a dance, with the seasons, nature, and the people around you.

1. Plant something – Brussels Sprouts transplants, Radish, Beets, lettuce.

2. Harvest something – Nothing.

3. Preserve something – Basil, green peppers, both dried. Pumpkin in freezer.

4. Reduce waste – Regular recycling and eating of leftovers.

5. Preparation and Storage – Found taper candles, 98c. for 15. Yay!

6. Build Community Food Systems – Farmers market.

7. Eat the Food – Tomatoes. Dried potatoes added to stew (Yum!). cooked and mashed sugar pumpkins, with DD's help, for pie, muffins, and freezer.

8. Crafting – Crocheting (storage baskets, this time). Spinning. Sewing. Weaving practice. Basic, but still fun!

Balcony Gardening

I've cleaned the garden, mulched, and re-arranged. I do need to go back out and pull up the collards and cabbage - I lost them to cutworms. I hadn't taken any precautions, now I know better! And they ate them up in less than a week. Next time - toilet paper tubes around stalks, and cornmeal on the soil. Also more crushed eggshell might be a nice deterrent.

The picture shows the lettuce (since bolted) and a new parsley plant from the nursery. The wood in the front just looks nice and is essentially garden sculpture. Both of the garden stands you see were discards from others.

So, this summer I got a few salads worth of greens and a bit of chives. The fall planting will be when the heat breaks in September. I hope.


Related Links:
Self-Sufficiency Garden: Talks about gardening, including fruit trees, in small spaces like balconies and condo 'yards.' Includes specific varieties to try, and sources for them.
Journey to Forever: Very useful site. This page has links to more information and books about kitchen gardening in containers, without necessarily costing a great deal.
What to Plant Now: at Mother Earth News. Shows 8 US regions, and each region has suggestions for sowing (indoors or out) or transplanting, for March to September.
How Much Veg to Plant: at Grow Organic Food. Summarizes how much to grow to feed a family of two adults and three children, in regular garden rows, with suggestions for how much to harvest for each meal. The information can easily be used for most situations, I would think.

Independance Day Challenge- Week 7

1. Plant something – transplanted a parsley plant from the nursery, put down mulch on all the pots. Balcony looks very nice now. Checked at the nursery, and confirmed it's really too hot to plant anything until September.

2. Harvest something – Nothing.

3. Preserve something – Still working on a full stock of green peppers (almost done!).

4. Reduce waste – Regular recycling and eating of leftovers.

5. Preparation and Storage – does clearing out 4 boxes of clothing count? One was donated, two boxes were summer clothes I'd forgotten and are being washed & put back in the closet..

6. Build Community Food Systems – Visited farmers market, bought veggies. Brought co-worker with me, and bought food for another on request.

7. Eat the Food – Steamed squash for dinner, sliced cucumbers are now a staple snack. Ate venison from the freezer. Tried fried green tomatoes on the family (neutral reviews).

8. Crafting – Did some clothing repair.

Market Basket & More

Omar Heirloom Tomatoes, Squash, Green Tomatoes, a dozen cucumbers and nearly as many green peppers (most peppers aren't in the picture).

And in the mail:
The seeds I ordered from Sustainable Seed Co. Quick service, and I like that they encourage you to save seeds. Farmer John includes descriptions from old catalogs on his seeds; really neat!
The baskets they are one are the ones I picked up over the weekend - the railing planters. They'll get planted in these later in the year.

Independance Day Update - week 6

1. Plant something – nothing yet. Ordered more seeds & organic fertilizer. Picked up two railing planters for the patio. Need to test soil as one pot, at least, was showing signs of soil depletion (everything is potted, after all). That one got re-potted, and is slightly happier already.

2. Harvest something – Lettuce. Need to start another round, probably in the planters I just got.

3. Preserve something – Still working on a full stock of green peppers (almost done!). Froze venison broth to use later. Experimenting with drying cucumbers, and preserving watermelon (freeze /dry/candied rind).

4. Reduce waste – Regular recycling. Ate more leftovers.

5. Preparation and Storage – Bought Mary Bell's Complete Dehydrator Cookbook. Drying food looks FUN now, and is being expanded in storage planning.

6. Build Community Food Systems – Visited farmers market, bought veggies & watermelon. Planning, as requested, dried foods & seasoning mixes for Yule gifts. The dried foods will be as local as possible.

7. Eat the Food – Steamed squash for dinner. Ate venison from the freezer. Eating watermelon & cucumbers. Tried the candied rinds - yummy!

8. Crafting – Cross-stitch, stocked yet more needed supplies, starting sewing tops. Used a muslin 'sample' top to check fit - was 3" too short - then adjusted pattern & will make more of them. Spinning yarn nightly, and noticed the difference a balanced spindle makes (huge!).

Window-box Gardens

I found this article about window-box gardens. It mentions (among other things) that some of the easiest vegetables to grow are lettuce, radishes, beetroot, rainbow chard and rosemary. At our last apartment, I grew basil on the back porch - one pot provided me with a winter's supply. And I use basil a lot; it's one I put in nearly everything.

On the balcony - the lettuce & collards are still happy, and the cabbage is just starting to form heads. I haven't pulled the beets yet but I've given up on them - still just a leaf or two, and 3" tall. I don't think they like southern summers :) I have one happy branch of mint. I really need to re-pot it, and give it some fresh dirt. Hopefully that will perk it back up.

I've also got to go wandering through seed catalogs, and see what I can find that I can grow for winter. Swiss chard, radishes, turnips, perhaps another round of cabbage or greens, definitely lettuce. Remember, when planting a balcony garden. one can always buy sampler packets of seed. I did this when I could, and will get a few plantings from each packet.