A few afternoons ago I was emptying out one of my large planters (two feet by three feet by two feet tall) of last year's substandard soil so I could put in my new soil mix. This planter is traditionally kept at the very farthest corner of the balcony. While going through the soil I found seven peanuts, in shell ( Read more... )

The seeds arrived yesterday! <4 I did a happy squee dance and it was all very goofy. As of today I've planted (in my Jiffy greenhouse, on peat inserts) eight strawberry plants, eight grape/cherry-tomato plants, three asparagus pea plants, three Eight-Ball zucchini plants, and three pattypan squash plants. Of course not every single one of those ( Read more... )

I was Googling for gardening info and came across a discussion about sterilizing gardening soil before reusing it in containers. In the comments thread I came across this comment, where an idiot actually invokes Hitler ( Read more... )

Placed the seed order this evening! Woohoo. :D I'll figure out invoicing later. And of course there's still room if anyone wants to join in on most of the seed packets I ordered - if there's still room to get in on that packet, there's a bracketed note at the end of each seed that says how many more people that order can accommodate. Since not all ( Read more... )

Haven't placed the Vesey's order yet but we were at Home Depot a few days ago anyway, so I let Gavin help me pick out some seeds: sugar snap peas, a Royal Burgundy bean bush, Mini Bell Mixed peppers, Purple Haze carrots, Aunt Molly's Ground Cherries, Balcony Charm tomatoes, Black-Eyed Susans, and Lupins (flowers ( Read more... )

I'm going to be ordering a bunch of specialty seeds from Vesey's for the 2009 spring/summer growing season, probably ordering in February. Since I'm a container gardener I'll only use 10-20 seeds or so from a pack, tops, and there's usually many more than that to a pack. So since my cost is about $40 and I won't be using the vast, vast majority of ( Read more... )

[gardening ( Read more... )

Every year my balcony container garden gets more ambitious, as I learn more about gardening. ( This year I'm doing a lot of new things, and here's some things I've learned so far, some of which I wish I'd known when I started this year's garden. )

I can't help it. If I'm within sight of a gardening center, I have to go in. It's like a black hole that pulls me in and then sucks the money out of my wallet. It's terrible ( Read more... )

My balcony garden is almost entirely planted now; there's just two more 6" by 24" rectangular planters waiting for occupants, and then it's No Vacancy for this year! So far, I have:
( Cut for those not interested in gardening - those who are, click! )