I took a break from unpacking today to do a little gardening. It’s been about four years since I lived somewhere that gardening was feasible. Our balcony gets good light, plus came with two planters on the balcony.
This is one of the two. I’ve filled them with edibles.
There are two types of cherry tomatoes, a compact “Yummy Mix” pepper plant, oracle, nasturtiums, rosemary, and sorrel.
The oracle is the purple plant which is apparently a Pacific Northwest Native that tastes like spinach and is very nutritious. It’s also pretty, so, bonus.
As the season moves on, I’ll have to swap out some of the plants, but meanwhile we have something that looks nice and will supplement the table a little.
And my hands smell like earth, which is surprisingly satisfying.
I also do container gardening. I have two containers of herbs, one of lettuce, two tomatoes, one bell pepper and one squash. It’s so rewarding, and makes an excellent break from more sedentary endeavors! Good luck!
lovely, but be warned, those containers are shallow for edibles and will require ridiculously frequent watering on the sunny balcony… you might consider some deeper and larger pots for things like tomatoes. Your Mediterranean herbs, like thyme and rosemary, will be happier in the dry heat… I speak from a decade of rooftop container gardening in NY- so different than having stuff in the moist oregon ground!
Warning is taken. I think the container is deeper than it looks in the photo, but we’ll see. Our lease says that we can’t put anything else on the ledges so I may wind up getting pots on the floor if these don’t do well.
Can you have hanging planters?
For a couple of seasons I had smaller varieties of tomatoes planted through the central drain hole of a hanging planter. This was well before the ugly thing you see on t.v. now.
Oh! I just left my house and garden, and now live in a balcony-less condo, and I miss my sorrel so much! Can’t find it in stores, not in any quantity. Sorrel sauce over fish–I’m salivating as I envy you (just a bit) those planters.