Playing With Dirt

It must have been all the hours my I spent outside making mudpies and tracking ant colonies - but I really love being outside and digging in the dirt. Weeds, like split ends, are my nemesis, and I pursue them both with such concentration that I really can't understand HOW both they manage to continue their existence.

Anyway - back to dirt. On International Women's day - I trotted down to Nova Linia and bought 16 kilos of dirt. Beautiful black stuff - it says its Ukrainian. I bought a trowel as well, lugged my purchases home and set to work rolling newspaper planters. I started peppers, tomatoes, spinach and celery. Spinach because I would like to see if I could grow it year round on my balcony - Celery because its super expensive here and thought why not grow it.

Now, a week later, I think the first spinach sprout it pushing up through the dirt. Knowing that I have seeds growing on the balcony is exhilarating - all that potential sitting there and germinating.

A friend who was over last Friday did burst my bubble a little - she pointed out that on the 14th floor and on the balcony - my plants my not have access to the bees and bugs which are vital for their pollination. My wonderful potential tomatoes will do nothing more than bud. I've decided to worry about that hurdle when the tomatoes actually sprout and put out blooms. Maybe I could trundle them off to the park for a few hours every day, let them frolic with the birds and bees while I read or study Russian or something.

The next hurdle came when i decided that I should actually look up on the Internet HOW to grow celery. I figured it wouldn't be a problem - seeds - you plant them, water them, and they grow right?

Celery seeds are small. Much smaller than a mustard seed. And they grow up to look like trees. I wonder why Jesus didn't tell us to have faith like a celery seed. Surely the apparent effort needed to grow a stalk of celery requires some faith - especially to begin the undertaking on a balcony and then hope that weekend visits to the country side will produce crunchy stalks? Faith or stupidity - I began the adventure by strewing the seeds in a dirt filled egg carton and then "raking" them a bit more through the dirt.

Strike one.

This "more difficult to grow" vegetable should be planted as few as possible in each pot, and later thinned to ensure that only one seedling is in each pot. I doubt that by as few as possible they imagined my spreading out half the contents of a seed packet through 15 egg carton baskets.

Strike two.

After the seeds have been planted and thinned, they should be transplanted in rows 2 1/2 feet apart, leaving 1 ft between each seedling.
There goes my dream of two or three celery plants making a home in a large balcony planter. My whole balcony would need to be filled with dirt to accommodate these plants.

Strike three.

"Celery is a heavy feeder . It also requires lots of water. Make sure to provide plenty of water during the entire growing season, especially during hot, dry weather. If celery does not get enough water, the stalks will be dry, and small. Celery plants should be grown n full sun. and a rich a rich, garden soil." From http://www.gardenersnet.com/vegetable/celery.htm

If the celery is planted in full sun, it will definitely require watering every day. How i am to manage that while feasibly being able to go out to the village every few days is beyond me. Maybe I can find a Babushka who I can convince to water the celery. they will think I'm crazy - they don't really raise or eat it here - hence it's price but seriously if you need a square foot of land for each plant and with land prices being what they are here - I'm surprised its only up to $6 a stalk.

In addition to the watering - apparently I will need to be actively defending my poor stalks from slugs. I've decided not to worry about that either. There are lots of ducks and chickens about and IF my celery can survive all the other obstacles - I'm sure they will manage to evade the slugs.