First Planting On The Balcony

by Mike Lieberman on April 21, 2010 · 22 comments

Urban balcony garden

I got my first set of planting done on my LA balcony garden.

The day started with building five self-watering containers. This year I built them using two containers, instead of one container and some tiling. I planned on building six of them, but the last pairing of containers were mismatched and wouldn’t work.

To start, I planted Kale, Purple Kale, Romaine Lettuce and Oak Greens. There is still plenty of space and need to pick up more containers, plants and get my seeds started as well.

It’s definitely a good start of things to come.


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  • jennypeterson

    Mike, is this your LA balcony now?

  • Mike Lieberman

    Yup. All mine. Seems like a farm compared to the fire escape.

  • http://www.gogreenstreet.com Tara @ Go Green St.

    WOW, you have a lot of growing room now!I love seeing Purple Kale grow, as it is such a beautiful plant.

  • taylen

    congrats on the new garden (and the successful move!) hope you enjoy life on the left coast!

  • Sketchkat06

    Good start. It looks like you planted everything pretty deep down in those buckets instead of the usual 1″ below the rim – any particular reason?

    Good luck here in LA

  • http://www.fitnessriot.blogspot.com/ Laury

    Congrats on the move!!! I wanted to ask you where you ordered your worms from??

    Also, if you have any good in season recipes I am doing an Earth Day/ Food Inc. premier party (on PBS tonight) potluck to promote food bloggers to readers! If you have a minute ch ch check it…thanks =)

    http://www.thefitnessriot.com/
    ps–I added you to my page..I think your site is great, and so informative!

  • itu

    i see your getting started…. simple man. i like that. what do you have growing?

  • Mike Lieberman

    Got crazy growing room now. Much more than I initially thought. Love the purple kale too. Might get some more of it.

  • Mike Lieberman

    Thanks Taylen. Things are good so far.

  • Mike Lieberman

    The plants were popped out of the plastic and put into the soil. I wanted to get them into the soil and sturdy, so they could acclimate with the new soil.

  • Mike Lieberman

    Thanks Laury. I used to live at that Farmers Market in Ardmore when I lived in Manayunk. I picked my worms up from a local place. I've heard that http://www.FindWorms.com is a good place to buy worms from.

    Good luck with the Food Inc potluck. I was gonna take part, but got to be too much with the move. Check out some of my recipes here http://www.SimplyRawRecipes.com.

  • Mike Lieberman

    Kales and lettuces to start. Gonna get some more soon.

  • bradfordk

    Hi Mike,
    Great blog and welcome to Cali. It seems to me like 5 gallons of soil is overkill for one lettuce/kale plant, especially depth wise. Have you considered growing root crops in the same container to make more efficient use of the available soil? I'm ready to explore the world of self-watering container gardening and look forward to bouncing ideas off you.
    Cheers

  • Mike Lieberman

    Thanks for the comment. There are actually at least 3-4 plants in each container. I just planted them clumped together. I have some carrot seeds sitting right in front of me.

    Def keep me updated on what you got going on.

  • panyvinito

    Awesome Mike!

  • Crush Wiza

    Is this the new LA spot!?…Nice!

  • Mike Lieberman

    Yea man. This is the new crib.

  • http://GlobalPatriot.com/ GlobalPatriot

    Inspiring to see how quickly and easily a garden can be created, even on a balcony!

  • Mike Lieberman

    Thanks. I gets things done and make them happen. :-)

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  • http://mightyherbs.blogspot.com Hallelujah Herbs!

    What a great site! I really enjoyed reading your posts and whatching video – so inspiring! I grow lots of herbs indoors and in the garden but the favorite one is Melissa. Now will grow more! :D

  • Mike Lieberman

    Melissa herb?