Our Balcony Garden

We are five days into our first venture in urban homesteading.  The girls and I are so excited about the little balcony garden we will have come summer.  Granted, this is all a complete experiment and I am not holding any expectations.  We will see how things go!

I decided to try out a balcony garden because I am pretty disenchanted about the state of our produce in the supermarkets.  This first summer is the beginning of us being able to grow our own healthy food- food that isn’t genetically modified, produced with chemicals and artificial fertilizers.  We also are reducing our footprint on the earth by not purchasing fruit and vegetables that are shipped over thousands of miles to the store.  They’ll be more flavorful as well.

I am surprised at the amount of planning that has to go into creating such a small garden.  I imagine that there might even be more thought put into it than would go into a large garden in a backyard.  We’re attempting to maximize the output we get for the small space we’re growing in and sometimes I am feeling a bit crazy over thinking about the different growing rates of the vegetables, when each has to be planted, whether it should be started indoors or not, and since I would like multiple crops, coordinating starting seedlings and harvesting the grown vegetables.  So much to do and think about!  I’m sure that each year we will become a little more proficient at it.  This year is dedicated to simply seeing what we can grow.

We are starting some of the seedlings indoors.  We have shelves with fluorescent lights attached and hopefully this will be sufficient for them.  I am a little concerned about when it comes time to move the seedlings outdoors.  On the balcony we will have shelving, hanging pots, and large buckets and bins for the larger plants. Our plants include eggplant, tomatoes, zucchini, honeydew melon, beets, radishes, spinach, onions, wax beans, cucumbers, lemon balm and basil.

So far the girls have thoroughly enjoyed looking and shaking the seed packets.  They keep asking when we will plant them and are learning a little about how plants grow and their needs.  The eggplants have been planted and they inspect the little seed starter trays each day, eagerly wishing the baby seedlings to poke through. 

What a learning opportunity this will be for them and me!