Category: Balcony

One of the questions that I frequently get asked is what vegetables can be grown in a shady garden. Most of us that grow in an urban environment are faced with this situation.

I’ve been growing for about 1.5 years between my fire escape garden and now my balcony garden. Both gardens received at max 6 hours of direct sunlight a day.

That didn’t stop me from attempting to grow veggies that required more sun. Those attempts were unsuccessful. I now know that tomatoes and cucumbers won’t do well given my current environment.

Besides what I can’t grow, luckily, I have learned some veggies that grow great in the shade. Here’s a short list of ones that I’ve had success with:

• Lettuces
• Kale
• Swiss chard
• Parsely
• Oregano
• Cilantro and dill (I’m likely stretching it with those two)

Here’s others that I’ve been told grow well in the shade as well:

Spinach

Arugula

Watercress

Collard greens

Pretty much any dark leafy green

This is by no means a comprehensive list, but just what I’ve learned from my experiences thus far.

What else would you add to this list?

httpv://www.youtube.com/watch?v=n24QTVfbNqw

On the surface this question is gonna seem stupid, but I think it has just caused to be asked – Do you need to add seeds to potting soil in order for something to grow?

A few weeks back I wrote about mysterious sprouts growing my containers. I thought I had solved the mystery and that they were old seeds that never sprouted.

Since that time I’ve planted four new containers. They were started using brand new bags of potting soil and the same sprouts are emerging.

When I planted the seeds in the containers, I definitely did not spill the seeds into the containers nor reuse potting soil.

I’m using Whole Foods store made potting soil. Not sure if they have seeds already in there. I think I’m gonna make a new container, not put any seeds in it, water it and see what happens.

Has this happened to anyone else? Does potting soil always sprout like this?

httpv://www.youtube.com/watch?v=u69F3jy3Nqk

It’s been over a month since I started the shipping palette herb garden. It didn’t take long for the containers to sprout, but there is a slight problem.

Initially I thought there would be a problem with the second and third rows because of the way that the water was draining down. That has not been an issue. I’ve been applying a small amount of compost every other week and reusing the water to help keep the plants nourished.

The problem that I am encountering is that the containers in the top row aren’t doing well. There appears to be drainage problems. When I water them, they fill up and slowly drain. This is causing either the seeds or sprouts to get dislodged.

Some of the containers at the top do have sprouts. I’ve been watering those slower in attempts to keep the sprouts in place.

I don’t think there is much that I could do right now, but when building more shipping palette herb gardens in the future, I’d make sure that the soil had better drainage. Maybe add some sand to it!?!!

What are some other ideas?

httpv://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iDfN5BuctJ0

I want to brag a little bit in this post. It’s been about 7-months since I left NYC for LA. In terms of growing food and gardening, it’s starting to settle in now.

It hit me when Colleen Vanderlinden wrote 10 Things to Do Now for a Better Garden Next Spring on Planet Green.

Last year during this time, I was fussing around and attempting to build small plastic greenhouses on my fire escape garden and in my Grandmother’s backyard. I eventually scrapped those ideas.

I actually just planted two containers with kale and collard greens. There really is no frost here, so I can grow year round. Though I still do have to drive everywhere, which sucks.

For those of you in the middle and right side of the country, I definitely recommend check out Colleen’s article and starting getting your spring garden ready.

I’ll just gloat and keep growing during the winter.

httpv://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2YRcyBQ2KeE

The thing that I think needs to be communicated more often is that my balcony garden ain’t perfect And you know what…who cares?

Everything that I plant, grow, sprout, whatever doesn’t look great and doesn’t always work. I’ve been having problems with my cucumber containers.

I think this needs to be said and said more often for a few reasons. The first, and most important, is that one of the biggest excuses that I hear from people is that they always fail when attempting to grow things. I have three containers right now that look like death.

The second reason is that when you look at most (not all) gardening websites everything is perfectly manicured and looks amazing. That ain’t life and for some people it’s not attainable, so why try?

Some of my latest failures are one cherry tomato container that is beyond sad looking, though I have been able to harvest a few tomatoes from. I have the remaining cucumber plant that the leaves are starting to turn brown and die. There is also another tomato plant that was transplanted recently that has browning and yellowing leaves.

I’ve been regularly adding compost and manure tea, but no luck. Lots of advice has been given to me to help remedy the leaves, but nothing has worked yet.

The fact that the balcony is east facing and gets direct sun until about 1030-11 am is likely a big factor. So I’ve decided to pull-up the plants and grow something that can survive without the direct sunlight.

I just wanted to express some of my failures to show that it’s not all perfect, but I learned my lesson and will continue. All good.

httpv://www.youtube.com/watch?v=o014gQzGNU4

I noticed that there were mysterious sprouts growing in some of the containers on my balcony garden. Unsure as to what they were, I posted a picture on Between the Posts and asked. No one could identify them.

They started off showing up sporadically in a few containers, but they’ve since started to grow more densely. Then I realized it.

Before I left for Costa Rica, I dumped out all of the soil (and seeds) that were in the coconut shell planters. There were about 20 in total and only three or four had sprouted. The soil was put into a bag to be reused when I got back.

After the trip, I mixed the soil with some compost, totally forgetting the seeds were in there, and filled up new containers.

They took so long to sprout because they were well mixed into the soil. So the mystery sprouts that are growing in all of the containers are some kind of lettuce that used to be planted in the coconut shells.

No clue how I totally overlooked that. What this shows is that these things want to grow and will under many conditions. Gotta love nature.

httpv://www.youtube.com/watch?v=f-gQdl15kGw

I am going to restart my experiment in starting seeds using hydroculture.

After the first week, there was nothing. No sprouts. Nada.

I thought, and from what people were saying, it could’ve been because they were getting too dry. So I put a tray under them and kept that filled with water. Still nothing.

It was then suggested that it could be too dry for them being outdoors.

I’m not one to give up easily and want to get this to work. They have now been brought back indoors to pretty much start from the beginning again.

I took some water with fresh squeezed lemon and poured it onto the seeds and rockwool. The egg carton is still sitting in the tray to catch the water and to keep moist. I’ve also put a sheet of plastic over the top to keep the moisture up as well.

Hopefully in the next few days, they will have sprouts.

Anything else you think I can do?

httpv://www.youtube.com/watch?v=blJUGoY0kio
It’s been about three weeks since I started seeds using hydroculture as an experiment. They still haven’t sprouted. Nada.

One issue

A few weeks ago I started the shipping pallet herb garden on my balcony. There are sprouts that are starting to grow.

The top most row had parsley planted in it. Only one of the containers is actually showing parsley sprouts and they aren’t where I had initially planted them.

Since when I water the garden, I water the parsley at the top, the seeds might be getting dislodged. This is might not be allowing them to get situated and firmly root.

The middle row has coriander in it and all of the containers are sprouting. I might actually have to thin them out a bit soon as well.

The bottom row has dill planted and those are sprouting as well. After the rain the other day, I thought the dill sprouts were going to get drowned out, but they survived.

At the very bottom, I have a few containers to catch the water. I’ll reuse this water 2-3 times before I use new water to water the garden. This helps to conserve water.

Thus far the shipping palette herb garden is doing great. It’s something that I’d definitely recommend for other to build for their garden.

httpv://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yJt9UtBQNy4

It’s been about a week or so since I started some seeds using hydroculture as an experiment.

Since I started them, I have to admit that I’ve been a bit negligent and haven’t been taking the best care of them. I’ve put them out on my balcony garden and have sprayed them down once in a while.

As of now, they haven’t sprouted yet at all. By this point, something should’ve have sprouted. I’m not saying that they don’t work and will keep the experiment going.

I’ll just need to take better care of them and make sure that they are kept moist. I’m also not sure, but they might do better indoors to start as well.

This is a way of growing that I definitely think could be useful for people with no growing space at all, so I’ll keep it going.

Any other ideas or recommendations?

httpv://www.youtube.com/watch?v=v4Yx7_uINmE

Here is another quick and simple way that you can grow some of your own food. It’s not really growing, it’s more like regrowing.

First you need to have either grown your own scallions or bought some at a local farmers market.

You can now re-grow green onions from the existing green onions in your kitchen on the countertop. This ideas was give to me by Leah Stoltz, one of my friends on Facebook.

You don’t need a backyard, fire escape, balcony or sunny windowsill to do this. All you need is a cup, water and your green onions.

Once your green onions have about three to four inches left on them simply place them in about one inch of water and set on your countertop. After two days, dump out and refresh the water.

You should be able to see them start growing again. Cut and use as necessary. Repeat until they no longer grow.

By doing this, you’ll be able to save some money, grown some of your own and save some trips to the market.

httpv://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yzfRtkCsauI

A few weeks back, I posted saying that all my cucumber flowers were falling offand thought it was because they weren’t getting pollinated.

People were saying that this is common on cucumber plants and that they are usually a sausage party with more male flowers than female. I’ve also added a bit of coffee grinds to the soil and watered them in as well.

The good news is now I have definite female flowers with cucumbers behind them. The bad news is that the first cucumber that emerged is slightly yellowing and the flower appears to be shriveled up a bit.

I’m wondering if this is a pollination thing or if it’s not getting enough direct sunlight. My balcony garden is east facing and gets about 4-6 hours of direct sun a day.

Maybe the extreme heat from the past week caused this?

What are your thoughts? Think I should start the hand pollination?

httpv://www.youtube.com/watch?v=upkh24SITlM

I received a message from Lica who checks out this blog. She lives in Brooklyn and doesn’t have any space to grow, so she’s been experimenting using hyrdoculture, not hydroponics. There is a difference and she explains it on her blog.

She contacted me, told me about what she was doing and offered to send some to me to experiment with. Always down to experiment with new things, I figga’d why not.

The package consisted of:

• A-OK Rockwool Starter Plugs
• Hydrotron
• Nutrient solutions that she kindly informed me weren’t organic and why she had them.

To get started, I also needed

• 1/2 lemon
• Gallon of water
• Seeds of my choice
• Egg carton

Since I wasn’t familiar with Rockwool and Hydrotron, I looked them up to see what the hell they were. I didn’t come across anything bad, except that you really shouldn’t handle Rockwool with barehands.

So if you know anything different about these two, please let me know.

Moving forward I am not going to use the nutrient solutions because I really don’t know what they are and will see if I can just use my manure tea.

Here is how I started the seeds:

• Cut the Rockwool cubes and placed them in a bowl of water to soak for 15 minutes.
• Squeezed the lemon into the bowl to raise the pH a little.
• Removed the Rockwool and placed each cube into the egg carton.
• Place a seed into each hole of the Rockwool.
• Set outside to germinate.
• Used water bottle to mist and keep moist.

What do you think about hydroculture?

[flickrset id=”72157624902858725″ thumbnail=”square” overlay=”true” size=”medium”]

httpv://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Xf9E5CUCVnE

Last week it was in the news that a Georgia man was fined $5,000 for growing too much food in his backyard garden.

He’s been growing on his land for 15 years and growing food was the reason for him buying the land. He’s been selling some of his excess produce at the local farmers market and giving it to neighbors as well.

The reason for him receiving the fine is that it is illegal to grow that much food for the zone that he is in. I understand that it is illegal, but how is it legal for it to be illegal to grow food? Yet it’s legal for fast food restaurants to exist?

Is growing your own food that risky and that much of a threat to society. Isn’t growing and sharing food with your community what society has been built around for years? Are we that disconnected from food?

I currently have 10 containers in my balcony garden and am certainly not going to get fined for that. I would like to expand to more containers and wonder how many I’d have to hit before I’d get fined. I should keep adding more until I find out.

httpv://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OfPd54ublA8

I harvested the first carrots from my container garden on my balcony. The carrots were way too tiny.

They were planted over four months ago in the beginning of May. I thought that this would be plenty of time for them to grow.

On the outside the carrot tops were showing and looked great, but when I harvested my first carrot it was mad small about an inch and very thin. I harvested two more carrots. One was a bit fatter, but still very tiny.

After I planted the carrot seeds, I didn’t do much beyond watering them. I think this might be the issue.

As the seedlings grew, they were never thinned out to allow for more space for the carrots to grow. Since they were all packed in to tight, their growth was stunted.

The container is plenty deep at about 14″, so I don’t think that’s an issue. I am going to let them grow until the end of the month to see if they grow anymore.

If they are still small, I will rip them up and start anew, but this time I’ll thin them out and take better care of them.

What are your thoughts?

httpv://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QRNyMOeQAUU

The flowers on my cucumber plants are falling. For the most part, they appear to be doing well on my balcony garden.

They are continuing to grow up the tomato cages, but none have set any fruit, just fallen leaves.

I think this might be because of a pollination issue. I really haven’t seen many bees in and or around my balcony to pollinate the flowers.

In looking closer at the flowers, there are definitely a lot of male flowers, but no female flowers. You can tell a female flower because it has fruit behind the flower.

So I might have to keep a closer eye on the flowers that bloom and start to hand pollinate the flowers if need be. I never thought I’d be artificially inseminating cucumber flowers, but I gotta do what I gotta do.

I’m pretty sure that lack of pollination is causing the cucumber leaves to fall. What do you think?

httpv://www.youtube.com/watch?v=shxPjmKRU_w

Hard to believe that it’s the middle of September already. That means that it’s time to start planting your fall vegetables.

Ok, it’s been time to plant your fall vegetables, but now it’s really time.

The best thing to plant in the fall, especially if you are container gardening, are greens. Lots of greens.

They will survive the slight chill, you will be able to pack them into the containers and you will get the most food from them.

Greens are also great if you only have access to a shady area, which is all I have on my balcony garden, they will survive. I have four self-watering containers, one regular container and two soda bottle self-watering containers that I sowed my seeds into.

Here is what I planted for my fall vegetables in September:

Four self-watering containers
• 3 rows: Leaf lettuce, kale, leaf lettuce. When planting the kale, I accidentally spilled some seeds into the container, so I have some extra thinning to do.
• 3 rows: Kale, leaf lettuce, kale
• 3 rows: Mesclun mix, kale, mesclun mix
• 2 rows: Kale

Two soda bottle self-watering containers
• Romaine lettuce
• Leaf lettuce

Regular container
• 2 rows: Cilantro and dill

Crazy as it is that it’s f’n mid-September already, you gotta stop holding on to summer and the excuses for not growing your own food. I’m going hard with the greens.

What are you planting for your fall garden?

httpv://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nEP9ejWGIfw

I’ve made another gardening mistake. This time I didn’t separate the plants when transplanting them into the containers on my balcony garden.

When I did my first round of planting on my balcony, I popped the plants out of the plastic and just planted them into the container. This seemed like a good idea, but wasn’t.

There were about 4-5 plants per bunch. They grew for a bit and I was able to harvest a salad from them, but they were growing very slow and having some other problems.

Initially the plants were taking a while to grow and after harvesting they weren’t growing back very much at all either. So I decided to just pull them up and start the container anew.

When the plants were pulled up, sure enough they were still in the shape of the plastic that they came in and the roots weren’t very well established. All reasons that the plants should’ve been separated before transplanting.

Now that the plants are out, I’ll reamend the soil and get something new planted in those containers.

httpv://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2celm8P9Np8

I am going away on vacation and this will be my last post until August 30, 2010. Please do your best to get by without me.

I have been thinking about changing the focus of this blog to include more about the importance of growing your own food.

For the past year plus this blog has been about growing your own food and how to do so, which it still will include. I want to write and discuss more about the importance of growing our own food, what’s involved in it, the growing, harvesting, sharing, preparing and still focus on the how to part as well.

I’ll cut back on this site as a journal for exactly what I’m doing and only mention the cool things (which will be difficult since everything that I do is so cool) and projects.

This will help to expand the site to give reasons why it’s important to grow your own food and how you can grow your own food. One plant. That’s all you need to grow to make that difference.

Hit me up with your thoughts on this direction. If you likes. No likes. Would like to see other topics. The same. Lemme know your thoughts, and I’ll get at it when I gets back.

httpv://www.youtube.com/watch?v=m1FP28HdmC8