Harvest

My balcony garden has been harvested.

Plant tally:
1 healthy stalk of cilantro
7 small, but yummy tomatoes
7 celery stalks

The celery here is differnt from american celery - it does grow big and fat - but rather stays lean and is a little on the tougher side, but it still added nice flavor to a pot roast I made the other night. The rest I'm putting up in the freezer.

I don't think I'll do the indoor garden thing again - maybe just for herbs.

Before . . ..

After . . ..

My Tomatoes	My Celery

Quite Contrary . . .

Two words that definitely describe our balcony garden.

Plant update:
Spinach - nill. The last plant to survive the mouse attack died, from something, maybe asphyxiation.
Celery - These blasted plants wont stop growing - they need like a foot of room each and I don't have it - I've been trying to give them more room - but there are only so many containers I can squeeze onto a balcony. I've taken to carrying them two by two to one of my friend's house who has a yard and can hopefully give them a happy hope in the great outdoors - Maybe though I'll talk to the door keeper and see if they will let me invade the flower patch that they tend out side the front door - How will I explain celery to them??
Also - Celery does sprout and even root if you keep the stalks in water and then move it to dirt - unfortunately it also go to seed - so my brilliant plant to grow extra celery won't work - the celery from seed is the best way to go.
Cilantro - Well fortunately, I didn't plant the whole packet of cilantro, and 6 little weak sprouts have sprouted. They seem rather decimated, but the leaves appear to look like celery - and since celery is the only thing that grows on the balcony - I have hope.
Tomatoes - two plants are growing - and I think they even have buds forming. They had been growing in two liter bottles - but I finally transplanted them into slightly bigger containers - Only slightly - like I said there are only so many containers you can squeeze onto a balcony.
Rhubarb - I have two sweet little rhubarb spouts who recovered from the mouse attack and are waiting to be taken out to the Hut and transplanted. I then foresee that they will live happily and sturdily ever after with minimal care. Thank goodness for rhubarb.
2 mystery plants - so I have two cups of dirt that each sprouted green leafy things. I don't know what they are - but my garden has been such a fiasco that I don't want to kill them - maybe one of them is one of the pepper seeds that didn't grow - so for now I am watering them and enjoying the greenery.

Balcony Garden Woes

So here is an update about my Balcony Garden.

Plant tally:

8 Tomatoes planted - 1 sprouted, two replants and a second sprout was added to the mix - total 2 tomatoes.
8 Peppers planted - Null. Zip, zero, not a single pepper made an appearance - even after3 replantings. :-(

Spinach - I had some very happy, small but flamboyant spinach plants - and last night something ATE all of them. I thought balconies were supposed to be safe from pests. To make matters worse - I also saw a little furry bottom and tail scuttle behind the cupboard on the balcony - how does a mouse get up to the 14th story - and why suddenly now in the spring? Do they just sprout out of the woodwork? Was it eating my spinach??

Rhubarb - also not recommended for growing from seed but yet all of my 6 seeds sprouted and prospered - UNTIL the mysterious something ate them. Now I have 2 very sad and be-nibbled rhubarbs trying to grow under a big plastic water bottle I placed over them for their protection.

Half a package of Celery which wasn't supposed to grow . . . . Everything grew. have transplanted 19 little shoots into plastic cups and sawed off soda bottles - but don't know what to do with them. Gave a whole egg crate littered with dense sprouts away and hope they will thrive and live to celery adulthood. Also have 3 store bought celery plants that are in water and are sprouting roots. Celery is not so hard to grow as it seems. The mysterious something obviously doesn't like celery because all 19 seedlings are intact and thriving.

Lettuce - last week I added lettuce to the mix and was thrilled to see some delicate greens poking through the surface - alas - the mysterious something got to them too last night.

Cilantro - so far nothing has sprouted - but until the mysterious something is caught that may be a good thing.

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.