The Untitled Post

We're back from camping and the post camping slump is in full swing. It's the slump you get after you unload the car, stare at the stack of campfire smelling laundry, the dirty dog, and the unorganized house, and choose to slump into the couch.  From the couch, my view would cause anyone to slump even lower.

One nice thing about my view, though, is the balcony garden! I love how lush and green it has become.  Remember when John showed you our upcycled popcorn tin turned tomato pot? Well, at Goodwill, we also found an even better something that we turned into our cayenne pot.

We have no idea what is use to be before it found its way into our hands, but now it makes an awesome pot for our cayenne pepper plants - they were growing too large for their previous home.

Does anyone have any guesses for what this wooden container could have been in its previous life? On the sides are metal tabs that seem to have attached to a lid or something. We're planning on removing them whenever John remembers he said that.  Oh, and before we added dirt and our plants, we made sure to coat it in sealant to protect the beautiful wood from moisture and weather.

There are some other new things in our garden.  Take this mint, for one! Last weekend we were both craving a mojito, and realizing that a packet of mint from the grocery store cost the same amount as a mint plant from the garden section of Walmart, we decided to go with the mint plant. I'm most excited that it's a perennial and will come back summer after summer!

What we thought were bell peppers have started to look like something other than bell peppers.  The leaves are dark green and big, but the plant recently started producing cayenne pepper type vegetables! Do you see me holding one in the below picture?

Again, I must ask the internet masses: what the heck could this be? The leaves are definitely much larger than our cayenne pepper plants (almost the size of my foot!) but the stalks are puny and skinny.  I'm a little sad we won't have bell peppers, but I'm a little excited to see what could be growing.

  

So, this is the nice view from where I am currently slumped on my couch. This is what I see when I look left. Please don't ask me what I see when I glance right or straight ahead.

Balcony Gardens

It's that time again - time to start planning your vegetable gardens! John and I have been brainstorming what type of plants we'd like to grow this year. After doing some research, it seems as though many vegetables grow just as well in pots as in the ground which is good news for us apartment dwellers!

Our sunny balcony

Last year we grew lots of herbs - thyme, oregano, basil, rosemary - and lettuce in pots lined up along our windows. We didn't have a balcony in our last apartment so our garden was an experimental one.  We learned that oregano and thyme grow well in a window but basil and rosemary do not. We also learned that lettuce is a very easy plant to grow in an apartment, but don't let it bake in the sun in the middle of summer.

Last year's herb garden

With our successes and learned lessons we hit up the garden shop last weekend.  We walked away with seeds to grow bell peppers, cayenne peppers, carrots, lettuce, spinach, oregano, thyme, and marigolds.

I've been perusing garden websites to get an idea of how I'd like our balcony garden to look. My number one goal (after producing edible vegetables of course) is to ensure we don't create a jungle where there is no room for us to enjoy the balcony and sit outside.

spotted at Home Grown

I want it to be welcoming with a variety of pots and containers and plenty of space for our table and chairs

spotted at Garden Tranquility

spotted at Blue Lotus

I'd love to get a couple planters to hang - it adds differing heights and frees up room.

spotted at Free Gardening Advice

I've been saving toilet paper rolls to use as seedling pots and will probably plant those in the upcoming week or so.  For now we have to work on using up the firewood that we still have....here's hoping for a few more cold nights so we can get as much use of our fireplace as possible.

Have you tried growing vegetables in pots before? What's your favorite plant to include in your summer garden? This novice gardener would appreciate any advice from wise gardeners out there.