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Wherein Garden Season officially opens.
Apr. 23rd, 2009 06:32 pmIt was cloudy and chilly this morning, so I wasn't prepared for how, when I left work tonight, it was suddenly spring.
But yeah, the sky is brilliant blue, it's sunny, and everything is suspiciously greener. The daffodils and crocuses are out, and the tulips are starting to turn from stalky green things into possible flowers. And I got the most unbearable urge to stick my hands in some dirt.
Thus is inaugurated the 2009 balcony garden. I shall torture you with garden posts until at least October. :D
Okay, so no pictures today, since for one, my phone needs charging and for two, there's not a lot to report. I picked up 40 L of potting soil on the way home (almost gone already), and used it to freshen up my old balcony railing boxes and fill up the two new ones. So really what you would have to see would be some boxes with dirt in them.
Seed inventory shows that I still do have quite a bit of stuff, but not so much with the variety, so I only planted the two boxes on the east side of the balcony and left the western ones for when I get more kinds of seeds. The overall strategy this year, I think, will go towards mixed-use zoning -- the ones that did best last year had two or three kinds of plants, and I think that was a nitrogen issue.
So the green box, the one that we saw last year:
--has been planted with peas, beans, and cucumbers in the same configuration as before: niiice tall beans in the back, shorter peas in the front so they can climb the pigeon netting, cucumbers on the side. This did me really well except for the fact that the cucumbers never got pollinated properly, and I think I can fix that by putting in a greater variety of flowering things and some marigolds to drag the bees in.
It now has a brownish sibling sitting right next to it (right behind where that pic was taken from) which is a little more experimental. I've done the beans along the back and one or two pea plants on the westernmost side, but the centre is spaced-out radishes and the easternmost side some small lettuces. We're going to see how that flies.
I still do have spinach and strawberries, and since the strawberries need full sun, I need to think carefully about how to do that. The spinach will probably go in the west-railing boxes, which are another of those big ones and this guy (also shown as per last year):
Greens are the plan; the plan is greens.
Further photolicious updates to follow!
But yeah, the sky is brilliant blue, it's sunny, and everything is suspiciously greener. The daffodils and crocuses are out, and the tulips are starting to turn from stalky green things into possible flowers. And I got the most unbearable urge to stick my hands in some dirt.
Thus is inaugurated the 2009 balcony garden. I shall torture you with garden posts until at least October. :D
Okay, so no pictures today, since for one, my phone needs charging and for two, there's not a lot to report. I picked up 40 L of potting soil on the way home (almost gone already), and used it to freshen up my old balcony railing boxes and fill up the two new ones. So really what you would have to see would be some boxes with dirt in them.
Seed inventory shows that I still do have quite a bit of stuff, but not so much with the variety, so I only planted the two boxes on the east side of the balcony and left the western ones for when I get more kinds of seeds. The overall strategy this year, I think, will go towards mixed-use zoning -- the ones that did best last year had two or three kinds of plants, and I think that was a nitrogen issue.
So the green box, the one that we saw last year:
--has been planted with peas, beans, and cucumbers in the same configuration as before: niiice tall beans in the back, shorter peas in the front so they can climb the pigeon netting, cucumbers on the side. This did me really well except for the fact that the cucumbers never got pollinated properly, and I think I can fix that by putting in a greater variety of flowering things and some marigolds to drag the bees in.
It now has a brownish sibling sitting right next to it (right behind where that pic was taken from) which is a little more experimental. I've done the beans along the back and one or two pea plants on the westernmost side, but the centre is spaced-out radishes and the easternmost side some small lettuces. We're going to see how that flies.
I still do have spinach and strawberries, and since the strawberries need full sun, I need to think carefully about how to do that. The spinach will probably go in the west-railing boxes, which are another of those big ones and this guy (also shown as per last year):
Greens are the plan; the plan is greens.
Further photolicious updates to follow!
