Apartment balcony gardening.....

[Beanie]

Does anybody do this and have advice? I have some kale in 8 inch deep flower pots 1 foot apart and doing some mesclun. I also want to do some tomatoes and some red chard. Any hints?? Thanks!!

[Shivananda]

Does anybody do this and have advice? I have some kale in 8 inch deep flower pots 1 foot apart and doing some mesclun. I also want to do some tomatoes and some red chard. Any hints?? Thanks!! I've done that at many points in my life. Other people wonder where to put a BBQ, I wonder where to put the pots for my basils and tomatoes and herbs. I'm weird that way.

Personally, I don't grow anything that I can easily buy, especially if I can buy it inexpensively. Kale and chard would fit that category *FOR ME*, because I can buy really beautiful organic stuff pretty cheaply at my local NFSs. What I can't buy, however, or would pay through the nose for if I could buy them, are purple basil, cinnamon basil, holy basil, heirloom tomatoes like striped ones or banana shaped ones or purple ones or tiny little cranberry sized ones, lemon verbena, Kentucky Colonel mint, microgreens for salads, edible flowers like nasturtiums and johnny jump-ups, etc.

And the latest thing for growing tomatoes are hanging pots that allow you to grow them upside down. Sounds strange, but they actually work well. There's also a freestanding unit that allows you to hang a bunch of tomatoes AND plant other things on top. It's really a great little compact garden for balconies.

My other key advice for apartment gardens is to get self-watering pots if possible. Containers can dry out VERY quickly in the full heat of summer and there is nothing worse than being a slave to your plants, afraid to go away for the weekend because everything might fry, etc. Or just getting home late after skipping a morning watering and finding out everything got cooked while you were out.

Another approach is to use a gravity feed drip watering system that needs no plumbing or electricity (except the battery for the timer). They are expensive (I think about $100 for a 6 gallon one from Charley's Greenhouse) but work well and typically have enough tubing and nozzles included to handle a really big container garden. http://www.charleysgreenhouse.com/index.cfm?page=_productdetails&productid=6480&cid1=-99&cid2=-99&cid3=-99

On the cheeeeeeap side, there are watering spikes available for a couple bucks each that screw on to a standard water bottle and just stick into the dirt in the pot to give several days worth of watering.

[Beanie]

Hey, thanks! Now where is a good place to get good tomatoes? Last year I had 3 tomato plants and none of them were very fertile.

And where can I get an upsidedown tomato basket? I want to grow as much as possible in as little room as I can. I've got hungry raw vegan animals too, lol!

[Shivananda]

Now where is a good place to get good tomatoes? What's your location? Online the best, best, best source of heirloom and open pollinated organic seeds is Seeds of Change. www.seedsofchange.com They also have the most gorgeous catalog you can imagine. When I was living in the Northwest both Seeds of Change and Territorial Seeds were good, organic, and readily available in NFSs and garden stores. Here in the Northeast I'm seeing organic seeds from Botanical Interests displayed in a lot of the NFS produce sections. I've bought a few to try myself, but my 'maters are still mostly going to be the ones from Seeds of Change. It's not too late to get some seeds started now on the window sill, although it is still wayyyy early to plant outdoors in most areas.

Her's a link to one of the places that carries TopsyTurvy hanging tomato planters, Gardeners Supply of Burlington, VT I've dealt with them for years and think they are terrific. http://www.gardeners.com/Topsy-Turvy-Vegetable-Planter/default/StandardCatalog.OutdoorPlanters_ForVeggies.34-320.cpd

Also... hard to advise you exactly since I don't know where you are... in many parts of the country where the Amish farm, you can buy tomato plants from them at roadside stands and farmer's markets, and their plants are both organic and open pollinated, and usually robust.

BTW, Seeds of Change also sell amazing biodiversity posters to beautify your walls and help make you feel you live in a garden (oh, be still my beating heart!) http://www.seedsofchange.com/garden_center/browse_category.asp?category_id=79


I hope that helps

[juliebove]

I use earthboxes. They work really well and don't take up a lot of space.

http://store.yahoo.com/nga-gardenshop/13-1330.html

As for the tomatoes, a lot depends on the weather. I'm in WA. Sometimes I get tomatoes, sometimes I don't. We can have a lot of cloudy weather and some summers don't have much hot weather. I think tomatoes do best in warmer weather. I got some last year, but then we had a lot of rain and the ones left on the vine just rotted. I did get a late start last year though. I'd ordered some plants from a nursery and kept waiting and waiting for them to come. They never did. They finally contacted me in July and said due to their bitter cold winter, they didn't have any plants to ship. By this point it was too late for me to plant from seed and it was slim pickings in the local nurseries for plants. So I bought what I could find.

This year I'm starting early and buying locally. I won't get the unusual varieties, but at least I'll have something.

[Beanie]

Oh thanks you guys! I'll check out to see if I can hang anything outside. But I might have to figure out a stacking arrangement like I do with my herbs and grasses! I have a few organic markets around here and I live in MD, so they are coming out with some started plants now. This is rather exciting for me! I just got a new angora bunny, and boy is he going to be spoiled! And so will I......

So I guess you can do any small plant? I just find tomatoes rather hard. Of course I learned they need an alkaline soil, so that may have been part of the problem last summer. I started out with potting soil for flowers and I think thats rather acidic soil.

[Shivananda]

I just find tomatoes rather hard. Of course I learned they need an alkaline soil, so that may have been part of the problem last summer. I started out with potting soil for flowers and I think thats rather acidic soil. Tomatoes ARE hard to do well. It's just that they are so much fun when it all works.

Yep, you need the planter mix for veggies, not potting mix for flowers. Also tomatoes are heat loving plants, and sensitive to drying out, so placing them near a wall that absorbs heat during the day and gives it off at night and shelters the plants from winds is good.

Here's my Number One Tip for growing tomatoes.... bury them! Yep, when you plant the starts in the ground or in your planter, bury all but the tip under the soil. Say I have a starter plant that is 6" tall. I'll dig a hole deep enough that all but an inch or two will be buried... basically just the last cluster of leaves at the tip sticks out of the dirt. I know this is counterintuitive and sounds goofy, but it gives the tomato a great head start, because roots quickly develop all along the part of the stem that is buried, and gives the plant a strong foundation more quickly than it would otherwise. Then the plant quickly catches up to where it would have been in upstairs development, and finally surpasses it because of the bigger root structure.

Number Two Tip... when the little yellow flowers form, each wil become a tomato IF they are pollinated. Fortunately tomatoes easily self pollinate and you can help them along by shaking the plant vigorously. In a garden blasting them around a little with a garden hose will often serve the same purpose.

[Beanie]

Yeah, THATS what I did wrong last summer. But now I do have planting soil, a 40 lb bag. So is there anything else that I need like minerals, plant food, etc? I do have limestone still. Or just let it go? And can I do heirloom tomatoes on my balcony? I guess I would need one big pot! Fresh tomatoes out of the ground are amazing so its worth the effort to try to get them right. And since I live on the 11th floor, I don't think I'll have any bees around here, so shaking the stems will do it?

I just got some red chard so thats really exciting and my buckwheat and sunflower seeds are sprouting too! But there is an argula that you sprout as a microgreen. I have never done it but I would like to try. But I guess soon my balcony will be a forest, lol! I think I'm actually supposed to be doing something productive this weekend like school work, but well, uh, I seem to be distracted!! Its planting time!

[rawpriestess]

Dragggon places a small quartz crystal beneath each of his starter plants, and a crystal or stone pyramid in each of the four corners (compass points) of the outter edge of the garden, this might help your starts.

[Maria]

Cherry tomatoes do really well in container gardens, and chives and parsley.

Maria

[Beanie]

What about heirlooms? Can they be done on a balcony and what size pot would I use?

[CAdreamer]

Shivananda said: And the latest thing for growing tomatoes are hanging pots that allow you to grow them upside down. Sounds strange, but they actually work well. There's also a freestanding unit that allows you to hang a bunch of tomatoes AND plant other things on top. It's really a great little compact garden for balconies.

I didn't want to spend about $20 for a hanging container, so I made my own for tomatoes last year and it work great. The only problem was that my patio off the kitchen was blistering hot, so I had trouble keeping them watered and cool enough. We had 4 weeks of 103-110 heat and it was hard everything in the big garden, even though we had installed controlled drip watering.

[PATH301]

RP,

Dragggon places a small quartz crystal beneath each of his starter plants, and a crystal or stone pyramid in each of the four corners (compass points) of the outter edge of the garden, this might help your starts.

Does the plant know what's going on? What do these crystals do?

[Dragggon]

Curtis.
Good question Im my belief I do think they know something is going on just like they respond when I spend time tending and talking to them.

All things in life vibrate to certain frequencys (as the quartz crystal in yer watch) My belief is that the vibrations help with growth.

My gardens aways do well ( lol so well my friends cringe when they see me walk up with another box of veggies ) lol because we can never use all that grows even when i only plant a few plants of each kind.

I never have pest problems (well other than those pesky deer) but there is stuff called liquid fence I found keeps them away.

It all started years ago when I saw a demonstration on the power of the pyramid they cut an apple in half set one side under a wooden pyramid frame no sides just frame work and set the other on the table less than a foot apart and at the end of the day the 1/2 out side the pyramid was all wrinkled and brown , the one under the pyramid was just as if it was cut.
Seeing is beliving to me so after that I tryed may different things with them and now use them all the time.

You can see an example of how the growth progressed 2 years ago on my website

http://www.theenchanted-castle.com/inthenews.ivnu

scroll down the page 1/2 way and there are pictures from planting to 3 months later.
Hope that helps if not email me and i will try and explain more.

[Beanie]

Another question, after you grow mesclun and arugula, does the plant keep growing or is that it after you pick it? It seems like that is the end of the plant from the directions, it says to plant every 2 weeks.

Hey, I got a lot growing now! :D :D I'm soooo excited!!!!!

[Shivananda]

Another question, after you grow mesclun and arugula, does the plant keep growing or is that it after you pick it? It seems like that is the end of the plant from the directions, it says to plant every 2 weeks. In the past I have usually found I could get about 3 cuttings before it stopped being worthwhile. So you get in a little rhythm... plant #1, grow #1, cut #1, plant #2, cut #1 again, #2 is almost ready, cut #1 again, cut # 2, plant #3... etc.

[Beanie]

Hey, you got some drums to play with that toon, LOL??? Sorry, it just had such a nice beat to it..... :D :D

You never know, maybe a little music will help my plants to flourish some more? :p

[rawpriestess]

We have wild mountain lettuce, deer lettuce, and mustard greens, and arugula tht grows wild almost all year long.

we've had arugula 4 feet high, the problem is that I don't care for arugula

our gardeners love it, so we keep giving it to them, but it never died, I keep pulling it up and putting in in the compost, and it just keeps coming back ICK!

but I do like the other greens, and Dragggon likes it, but he likes all wild greens, he goes wild foraging every day.

we have growing in our gardens, all wild
arugula
wild mountain lettuce
deer lettuce
mustard greens
dandelion
cahmomile
cat tails
plantain
clover
raspberry (young leaves are excellent for tea)
blackberry(young leaves are excellent for tea)
kentucky mint
nettles
yellow dock
wild strawberry


medicinal
mullein
heal all
comfrey
yarrow
oregon grape
sheperd's purse
echinacea
horse tail
juniper berries
clevers
night shade
fox glove
milk weed
cowslip
willow
skull cap
chickweed
feaverfew
angelica

[Shivananda]

we've had arugula 4 feet high, the problem is that I don't care for arugula 4 foot arugula is inedible, in my estimation. But 6 inch arugula is quite yummo.

[Shivananda]

horse tail... fox glove... This is a total digression, but reading your list RP got me all teary eyed about when I used to live on Whidbey Island. Horsetail and foxglove grew everywhere there, and salmon berries and fiddleheads and all kindsa amazing things that you could just pick whenever you wanted some. There was a particularly beautiful patch of foxglove... white and purple interspersed... i'd pass every day in the spring on my way to or from the Kingston Ferry.

Oh my, if only the war in Myraq hadn't broken out when it did... :(

[Beanie]

So on a tangent of this topic, do you guys eat wild edibles too? I'm determined to eat FREE this summer, lol!