Balcony graden 2010: Containers galore

I have not yet blogged about our gardening attempts for 2010. Even though we haven't had a huge amount of success in the past, we've really gone all out this year. I'm not sure what's made us so optimistic for this season, I think part of it is the introduction of our worm composters. We had plant matter growing in our compost bins (which we keep in our storage closet, in the dark), so we'd like to think that now that we have things properly planted in the soil and kept on the balcony in the sunshine, we should see more things growing, or even thriving. I think we're also just somewhat foolishly determined to grow something out there and the more stuff we plant, the better chance that at least one crop will work out.

Full view (or as much as I could get in) of the balcony with all of our containers. Note the bistro set, which we just got this weekend from Canadian Tire.

We started planting during the weeks following our return from Europe. First there was the epic task of trying to sift through our worm bins. At first we tried to be really careful and separate out as many of the worms as possible. However, after an entire afternoon disappeared spent working on only one bin, we were less devote going over the second. Once we re-bedded our worms we started planting (in fresh containers, or course), just the basics that we've tried before: carrots, radishes and the rhubarb plant we purchased from the farmer's market last year. We opted out of peas as they always ended up getting fried in the sun. Then we planted zucchini, as everyone I've ever known to grow zucchini says it grows like weeds. The next week at the farmer's market we picked up tomato and pepper plants (I tried to sprout these at home, but they didn't grow) and added them to the growing collection of pots on our balcony.

Our radishes. I hope we can harvest them soon.

Rhubarb, destine for jam or some kind of desert, like pie, or maybe a coffee cake.

The tomato plant, doing quite well too. Note the two tiny green tomatoes growing in the middle of the plant.

One of our big planters with a zucchini plant starting in the middle section. Lettuce is growing all around the exterior.

The peppers, starting to flower already.

Have I mentioned the potatoes yet? Supposedly they're great for container gardening and after I discovered a couple of instructional videos online about how to grow potatoes, we purchased a blue bin, some seed potatoes and planted those too. Oh...and then there's the newest addition to the family...this one's entirely Andrew's baby...we have a grapevine named Valiant. Okay, so Valiant isn't really it's name, it's the type of grape, but Andrew told me that's what its name is, so that's what I'm going to call it.

The potatoes, which seem to be as happy as a proverbial clam in their blue box. And Tabitha, probably watching some birds.

Valiant. A spindly right now, but we'll see what we can do over the summer.

We'll see how things progress over the months. Edmonton hasn't had a lot in the way of hot weather so far this year and after we'd gotten everything going we even had a couple of days of snow--which I think might have stunted the radishes. I have high hopes for the potatoes though, which seem to be doing really well. Otherwise, who knows what will work out. I'll definitely post again if we have any success.

Ciao,

Andrea