It’s been almost two weeks since I set about the task of turning my balcony into a small garden to produce fresh veggies for my family. The pictures below are from earlier this week, showing the steps from mapping out the space to building the elevated beds to transplanting the seedlings.
In the end, I opted to follow the “square foot” gardening method. Here’s what I’ve learned thus far.
- The little peat pellet seed starter greenhouse thing is lame. Once the pellets have expanded from watering, they squeeze themselves into the molded spaces in the bottom of the tray. That made it a big pain in the butt to get the seeds out gently. Further, some of the faster growing seedlings, like the zucchini, developed a rood structure fairly quickly that reached beyond the bounds of the mesh enclosed peat pellets. These roots started growing into the neighboring pods, and I was afraid that I’d damage the roots while separating all of them. I won’t be buying this type of seed starting system again. If I start seeds indoors in trays, I’ll instead opt for something more like these trays.
- I started the seedlings before even measuring my space available due to my excitement and impulsiveness. I was kind of impatient in starting this project. What that means practically is that I started equal numbers of various types of seedlings. I effectively started the same number of radishes as zucchini. Following the square foot gardening method, I can grow about 256 radish plant OR 4 zucchini (I started 14 radish and 10 zucchini). I ended up with too few of the plants that I can plant a lot of, and too many of the plants that I can only plant a few of. As those bigger plants that need more space (peppers, zucchini, broccoli, cabbage) mature, I’ll choose 1 or 2 of the stronger plants and let them grow while freeing up space for plants that grow faster and can be planted closer together within each square.
- With the space I have available, broccoli and cabbage may not be a cost effective plant to grow. I have 16 square feet, and it is recommended to have 1 broccoli or cabbage per square. I may be able to get more value from planting other things that will yield more money’s worth of veggies per square. I’m considering more greens, beets, maybe an heirloom tomato. I have beet and swiss chard seeds in the waiting which I’ll probably plant in 3 empty squares this Friday.
Another thing I did was to buy 3 cheap storage boxes and drill drainage holes in them. They’re about the size of a shoe box. Since they are small enough for me to find random spots in the garden for them, I’m intending to start each week a new batch of mesclun in each box in the hopes that I’ll have a readily available source for salad greens. I may need to get a few more boxes for this system to work. I’m just starting the seeds right in the box, and I’ll harvest them as they reach maturity.
Now, for some pictures. These first two are of the balcony space. It’s east facing, with some tall trees filtering some of the morning sun. The garden will be in the south part of the balcony, since access to the utility closet is on the north.
Looking out on the balcony. Six feet in length is available along that wall.
Another view of the site for the garden. About 4 feet available along the right wall.
The following images are of the process of constructing the planter beds. I have NO woodworking skills. I had the guy at Home Depot cut everything to the length I needed so it would all fit in my hatch back. I used a level when putting on the legs, but aside from that I just eyeballed everything and screwed it together.
I drilled 1/4″ drainage holes in the plywood, and filled them with 8 cubic feet (4 per box) of soil. I bought the pre-mixed “square foot” soil, because I didn’t want to measure the correct proportions of compost, peat moss, and vermiculite and end up with extra. I wanted this to be fairly dummy proof. I’m curious to see how the soil performs. The typical soil recommended for square foot gardening is 1/3 compost, 1/3 vermiculite, and 1/3 peat moss.
Stay tuned…
Do you remember playing “war games” as a kid? Not the ones that involved connecting yourself to your TV, but the ones where you grabbed your coolest toy gun (or even an appropriately shaped stick) and headed outside with your friends to run around screaming “Pow! Pow!”. “Pow” would be followed inevitably with “I have a force field”. Of course that would be followed with “I have force field penetrating bullets”.
“No you don’t.”
“Yes I do.”
It would carry on like this until someone got the bright idea to play kickball or dodgeball, or until everyone went home to tell their parents how stupid the other kids were.
There’s a similar thing going on in legislation, I think.
You may have heard of some communities wanting to ban the sale of toys with kids’ meals in restaurants in an effort to curb the obesity epidemic. This is, of course, a noble cause. It’s not the best way to go about doing it, however. Some things shouldn’t be legislated, and while I agree that the obesity problem needs to be addressed, I disagree that placing restrictions on how restaurants are allowed to market their food is the way to do it.
Here in Arizona, we’re so intent on not having any silly communist legislation telling us what we can and can’t do, that there is legislation in the works to ban legislation that would ban having kids’ meals sold with toys. If that twists your head in knots, I’m right with you. It’s like we’re kids again. Here’s a link to an article that goes into (slightly) more detail than I.
“I’m banning something I don’t like.”
“Oh yeah, well I’m gonna ban your ban, ‘cuz banning is stupid.”
It’s positively ridiculous.
I have an idea. Let’s spend time educating people, and empowering them, so they can make healthy choices for themselves. Let’s teach kids to WANT healthy food, toy or not. With the time, effort, and money spent on legislation and enforcement, couldn’t we do better by our kids? Couldn’t we give them healthier school lunches instead of lunches that are on par with a toy-enhanced fast food fat fest? Couldn’t we invest in community gardens? There are so many better ways for the government to invest it’s resources for real change.
Or, we can let the legislators sit around trying to protect us from ourselves, or to protect us from those who would protect us from ourselves… If only I had a force field to keep all of that silliness at bay…
It’s been 4 days since I started the seeds for my little balcony garden project. At this point, all of the radish seeds have sprouted. Some of the zucchini, cabbage, broccoli have also sprouted. The bell pepper and spinach are still doing whatever it is that seeds do when they’re under dirt.
It's ALIIIIVVEEEE!
Over the past four days I’ve given some thought to how I’ll lay out the garden. Since this may or may not work, I don’t want to get too crazy building beds and irrigation systems and all that on the balcony. If it works out, then I may build a nice raised bed and follow some of the “square foot” gardening tips I’ve found online. For now, I’ll probably use a few large round or square planters, or even plastic storage tubs. I may even just lay out some bags of soil and slice ‘em open and plant right in the bag. This first planting will be quick, cheap, and dirty. In an upcoming post, I’ll share some of my ideas on how to use the space, and some pics of the space itself.
Now go have a salad!
I want to share a little running tip with you today in hopes that it will help you improve both your running, and your mind-body connection. Let me share some details from this morning’s run with you. The temperature is 65 degrees, a light breeze is blowing, and the sky is slightly overcast. It’s the perfect temperature for a run, in my opinion. The sun wasn’t oppressive and threatening to cook me through my shoes like I know it will in just a few short months, and the breeze was cooling. The rustling of the leaves was pleasant.
Ordinarily, I’d slow my pace and really enjoy the experience of the run. Often my longer runs are more for enjoyment than for conditioning. Today was a little different. I certainly enjoyed the run, and I did slow down, but I didn’t slow down because I wanted to pull back and enjoy the experience.
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When striving to live the Paleo lifestyle, and reap all of the health benefits associated with it, a lot of discussion is devoted to eating locally sourced food. The benefits of it are clear. Nutritional content isn’t lost in shipping, and fewer preserving agents are used. The carbon footprint associated with the logistics of transporting food thousands of miles is reduced significantly. It’s good for the local economy.
You can’t get any more locally sourced than your own back yard. Lots of paleo folks have begun gardening, or animal husbandry where they have the room to do so. What if you live in an urban environment? How about if you live in an apartment complex, on the second floor, with no yard, in the desert? That’s my predicament, and I’ve been giving some thought on how I can still cultivate some veggie goodness for my family. Today I stared that project, and I want to share my progress and pitfalls with you in hopes that it will get you thinking of ways in which you can positively impact both your body, and the environment.
Today’s tasks involved simply planting the seeds. Loosely following a planting guide I found at the Community Food Bank’s website, I chose to purchase seeds for
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