Thursday, April 21, 2011

Apartment Gardening

Living in an apartment has some drawbacks when it comes to growing plants. In our last apartment we didn't have a balcony, but our abundant windows faced west and we were able to make due with small pots of herbs on our window sills.  This year we moved into an apartment that has a great balcony...of course the drawback this time is the northeastern direction it faces. I guess we can't win but we can make due because that's the mantra in apartment living.

We are excited to try growing a vegetable garden for the first time ever this year!  We started carrots, bell peppers, cayenne peppers, and lettuce out as seeds and they are all growing quite quickly!  In an effort to be green and stay on budget, I fashioned some seed pots out of toilet paper rolls. They worked really well and I loved being able to just peel the paper off easily when it came time to plant the seedlings in larger pots. I always struggle with breaking roots when I pull teeny seedlings out of pots.

DIY seed pots
I will definitely be using toilet paper rolls next year to start seeds! They worked wonderfully!

Lettuce
Our young lettuce when it was just starting to sprout....look at it now!

Our lettuce today
It's amazing how much more lettuce we find ourselves eating now that we have it growing on our balcony. I can't wait for the rest of the vegetables - we'll be the healthiest people ever.

Carrots

I'm worried that we have too many carrots in too tight of quarters...what do you think?

Peppers

I can't remember if these are cayenne or bell peppers. Guess it'll be a mystery!

Basil

Basil and I don't get along too well. Typically within a couple weeks of growing it it dies horrifically. I'll keep you updated on this little guy.



I can't wait until we get our balcony cleaned up and pretty...now if we could just do something about the excess firewood we have.  We do have one thing planned for some of it - stay tuned for a bench we are building with some leftover firewood!

8 comments:

Hyphen Interiors said...

Awesome! Great idea with the toilet paper rolls. I really want to start a veggie garden. It's a goal for next year. I found a spot in my yard that I think will work well. (This year was mostly spent getting plants back into shape after a couple of hard freezes this past winter.) Thanks for stopping by my blog and entering the giveaway! Love your header, by the way.

Rebbie said...

Your lettuce looks yummy. I haven't had much gardening luck the last couple of years so I think I'm going to take a break this year and really work on getting my soil up to par. Save a carrot for me!

Unknown said...

That is some inspriration for me! I have never tried gardening before!

Anonymous said...

You can bring that firewood to our house!! It is still 40 degrees here and even snowed the other day!! I LOVED living in my apartment and having my tomatoes on the balcony...until a stiff wind blew them over one day and humpty dumpty had a great fall. Eh...Live and Learn!

Lindsay said...

SO AWESOME!! I absolutely LOVE that you live in an apartment and still made a garden!! Toilet paper rolls..genius. Most people wouldn't do this. So great! I am having a a great time browsing your blog and am a new follower of yours as well

Delighted Momma

Lindsay @ Delighted Momma said...

Hi Kristen,
I am going to be doing a post on creating your own garden..we are building it this weekend..and I wanted to ask if I could link this post on my page..for those who think they cant because they live in an apartment..you are brilliant! Leave me a comment on my blog or e-mail me at lindsay.kujawa@yahoo.com to let me know it its okay with you :)

-Lindsay
Delighted Momma

Heather said...

I'm also in an apartment (no balcony, though) & love the tp roll idea! I'm going to start saving my rolls for my own garden!

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