Getting down and dirty. Grow season for me begins before it ever warms up outside. No backyard and limited space means thinking smart for container gardening on a balcony. When my last cat departed my life, I had the opportunity to start a new hobby. A garden that wouldn’t be voraciously eaten by a carnivore that thought it was an herbivore. Lots of stories there, even pineapples with decimated leaves occurring overnight.
PINEAPPLE MINT
Container gardening, with the exception of herbs was something I’d never done. I’m used to gardening on a much larger scale in the earth, tractor required. We grew most of our own food for the whole year, two gardens, one in the country, and one in the village where I grew up. The whole concept of container gardening was foreign to me. I had a lot to learn.
YELLOW PEAR TOMATO
Starting from seed is best. When you purchase plants from a greenhouse, you never know what you’re getting. It’s a mixed bag. Plants may have diseases, or be unhealthy that doesn’t show up until well after purchase and planting. Starting from seed takes more time, space, and patience, but it’s well worth the effort in addition to being substantially less expensive. I also save seeds each year and collect seeds from heirloom organic produce to use for the following year.
GREEN GENOVESE BASIL
For germination, I place seeds inside folded damp paper towel and put inside labeled Ziploc bags. I keep them on the kitchen counter in a slightly warmer area, away from bright light. Depending on the type of seed, it’s approximately two to seven days to germinate. I find seeds germinate much faster this way than when planted directly in soil.
TOMATO SEEDLINGS
Next up is planting the germinated seeds into soil. I prefer to use inexpensive cups that I poke a couple holes in the bottom of, which I re-use every year. Tomatoes are one plant per cup. Peppers are twinned, always. They like to be grown in pairs and do best that way. Herbs and leafy greens I germinate about a month later than vegetables, since they don’t need as much of a head start. Highest number of seedlings I’ve had at once was around ninety. Any excess I don’t plant is given away to others.
LEMON BALM
When it’s warm enough, the seedlings go outside in a mostly shaded area with some limited sun exposure to harden them off. They have to be exposed to being outside gradually, or they will die. It takes approximately a week or so to do this. Then they’re good to go.
The first year was the learning curve. Tomatoes are fussy little princesses with high demands. I spent the fall and winter doing a load of research into container gardening, vertical gardening, self-watering systems. I designed my own system using plastic milk crates lined with landscaping fabric. Stackable for vertical gardening. The right size for tomato princesses, plus allowance for mini-row gardening of leafy greens. Square is better than round, since the roots won’t spiral in a square container.
Landscaping fabric in a container with holes all over allows for the roots to be air-trimmed as well. The other half of my garden is set up on a manual self-watering system, using fifteen litre water bottles. It cuts down the frequency of water carrying required.
PINK PING PONG TOMATO
Tomatoes, by far, are the most challenging plants I’ve ever grown. I thought peppers would be the culprit, but they’re actually fairly easy to grow, with the only exception being that all manner of insects like to eat them. I became a bit obsessed with tomatoes. If an interest I pursue presents demanding challenges, my attention is captured. Third season, I mastered growing tomatoes in containers. I had eighteen tomato plants, nine different varieties, all indeterminate, meaning they grow like vines and produce far more than determinate, which are limited in height to three or four feet.
RED CHERRY TOMATO
Indeterminate tomatoes have to be trained as they grow. I train them in a spiral up stakes, since they reach about ten feet and more, depending on the season. The year I grew eighteen, they reached the balcony above me and were about three and half feet thick. A neighbour called it my “privacy hedge”. To concentrate upward growth and fruit production, the suckers in the crooks of each branch must be removed. Tomatoes also require pruning to keep air flowing freely and prevent disease.
TOMATO BLOSSOMS
Pre-mixed soil is something I’m not a fan of. I’m fussy. I like doing everything from scratch, if possible. I mix my own soil using a blend of peat moss, manure, and perlite. Tomatoes and peppers get an extra special bundle ball of nutrients, my secret recipe. It’s dirty, messy, muddy, and very physical. I blend it on my balcony using a couple of large storage bins. I’m up to my elbows in literal crap as my neighbours watch the performance from their balconies. I heard about that later. I’m so focused on what I’m doing that I don’t have any awareness of providing free entertainment.
RED HOT PEPPER
PRINCIPE BORGHESE TOMATO
Since I have limited space, I’ve focused mainly on tomatoes, peppers, a multitude of leafy greens, and herbs. There’s a good return on my efforts with that approach. Cooking and herbal medicine are other long-time hobbies of mine, so growing my own garden supports both of those interests.
MINIATURE RAINBOW BELL PEPPER
A large rosemary plant is behind the pepper plant in the photo above. Also, a closer view of the milk crate planter. For vertical, I plant out one or more sides of these.
VIETNAMESE CORIANDER
This coriander is my favourite, great taste, nice leaf, no bolting (going to seed), like the other two varieties of coriander I’ve grown. I buy the fresh herb from an Asian market, trim the ends at an angle, set in a glass of water until they root, then plant them.
LEMONGRASS
I buy stalks of lemon grass fresh and root them in water, then plant. I prefer that to buying young plants, which take much longer to grow than mature stalks I’ve rooted.
OKAHIJIKI
Always and forever, I have to try new things. One of the most unusual has been land seaweeds. Okahijiki, in the photo above, is Japanese land seaweed. The flavour is slightly salty with a fleshy and crunchy texture. The seeds, when germinated (not easy), uncurl in a spiral with a serpentine like quality.
PINK PING PONG TOMATOES
Pink Ping Pong is one of my favourite varieties of tomatoes. They grow to about two or three inches in diameter and are a high producer with excellent taste.
Peppermint is high on my list of favourite herbs. I find it soothing and refreshing in tea, fresh or dried. I also include it in some of my salads. Swiss mint has to be my number one. It has an incredibly high amount of menthol, so much so, that I only use it in teas. It’s far too strong for any other use.
SWISS MINT
Many people have told me that it’s a lot of work, this garden of mine. It is a lot of work, but it is work I enjoy for so many reasons. I have an intimate connection with plants, a dialogue that occurs as they teach me who they are. All the physical labour benefits my mind, my body, and my soul. Every season is different, even with the same plants. There’s an ongoing challenge, something I always need to keep motivating me.
There are so many plants on my balcony, that with the nearby trees, it’s as if I have a real backyard every summer. I love to sit amongst the energy of all that life around me, feasting my eyes while I enjoy a cup of herbal tea.
GOLDEN RASPBERRY
All photos taken by Nine with a Pentax digital 35mm camera and 90mm Tamron macro lens.
For those wondering why this post is muted:
galenkp chose to mute this post in retaliation, among other shady behind the scenes behaviour since I gave him the boot somewhere around two years ago. He has muted this post because I chose not to allow him to control me, give me orders, influence what I write, who to upvote, who not to upvote, whose posts to comment on, whose posts to ignore, etc. No one controls me. I have always been and will always be captain of my own ship. Deal with it.
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