Welcome to Building Up the Garden

For many years, I had small containers on my apartment balcony filled with flowers, herbs, and vegetables. They didn't always produce a lot - it didn't help that my balcony faced North and didn't get the intense six hours of sun most of the plants required - but I was still able to grow something.

Last year (around this time), I moved into my first house. Part of my excitement in having a house was creating a garden. I had once growing up. My parents always planted tons of kitchen herbs, tomatoes, and flowers. My dad always insisted on having tomatoes in the garden.

Part of my chores growing up was weeding the garden. By my late teens, I finally decided to add my own plants to take care of. I planted carrots, bush beans, and peppers. I don't know why I picked bush beans as I didn't like them (at the time), but they were so easy and fun to grow. I ended up giving them away to my coworkers at the cafe I worked at over the summer. The carrots always ended up looking hilarious - Virginia's soil is heavy with clay which isn't as forgiving as other soil compositions for straight carrots. The peppers and tomatoes were fine.

Since then, I've always had some kind of plant with me. My first indoor plant was a gifted Christmas cactus (that finally died on it's trip from New Jersey back to Virginia), followed by a rosemary plant - that died a lot sooner (rosemary doesn't do well in pots). Then I ended up with a King Tut papyrus and spider plant. These two are still going strong.

I started trying to seriously grow herbs and vegetables again when I moved back to Virginia and had a balcony (my places in New Jersey didn't have outdoor space) and Maryland's apartment was very shady. The results of a north facing balcony garden was mixed. I have a sage plant that's lasted almost six years now.

Last year, as a house warming, I was gifted several large planters I could have on my deck. As I wasn't prepared to start a garden in my yard (and there were already plants in the sectioned off areas that I didn't want to mess with), I chose to container garden on my deck. 

Results, again, were mixed.

My backyard is north facing with lots of trees - specifically a beautiful Japanese maple that takes up a good quarter of the yard. The sun it gets is okay on part of the deck, but not perfect. Also the weather was horrendous last year and I lost a good chunk of my plants to extreme weather conditions. 

However, I was able to get some peas, bush beans, tomatoes, lettuce, and herbs. So far the strawberries have returned this year (I have to fight the birds for them) and my thyme was able to overwinter without a problem. I did lose the parsley, though, and the jury is out on my rosemary and lavender in the front bed. 

This year, I added a raised bed outside my shed. I've planted a larger tomato plant, a banana pepper plant, and a "lunch box sweet" pepper plant. As companions, I added marigolds, cucumbers, and a row of carrots. 

So far the weather has been okay. We did have a late frost (after it being in the freaking 90s in early April). However, the plants I recently purchased at the Leesburg Plant and Flower Festival have been doing well. 

For those of you not in the Northern Virginia area (and for those who are, but aren't aware), Leesburg has an annual Plant and Flower Festival in mid-April. It takes up the main historic part of the town with tons of venders and activities. They even have a spot for where kids can do crafts. I like going because I can often find plants that are specifically cultivated for the Virginia climate and find some native plants. 

However, the native plant garden is a future AJ project. 

With Earth Day being on a Wednesday this year, the Leesburg Plant and Flower Festival was the weekend prior, while the Fairfax County Earth Day celebration was this past Saturday. I finally went to the Earth Day celebration as it was advertised on Meetup by my local chapter of the Sierra Club. They had a nice booth set up. 

Fairfax County seems to have fun with their Earth Day celebrations. There were tons of trucks and busses to touch - the usual fire engines and farm vehicles along with a city bus and garbage truck. The kids were having a blast climbing all over. They also had a rock wall, animals from the Fairfax County farm on Frying Pan Road, and lots of educational booths. I learned a few things about native insects and invasive clams and crayfish. 

There were also a lot of fun food trucks. 

Some of the booths were giving out seed "bombs" for people to plant at home. I picked up a milkweed plant after verifying that it was a native milkweed - non-natives will happily take over everything if given the change. I hope to plant it soon and see some monarch butterflies this year (if not future years). It'll be the start of my native garden.

Well now you've read an entire blog post where I gush about plants. I still have several indoor only plants and a few I keep indoors in the winter and outside during the summer, but some of that is changing.

See, some plants are toxic to our furry friends and I just adopted a cat. I'm currently moving these plants to places she isn't allowed and will either rehome them or find better places for them to stay away from her little claws. My house is also a lily free zone since they are especially dangerous to cats. I didn't have to worry about these plants with my last cat as she was completely uninterested in anything that was the color green (including catnip), but I'm taking no chances with my new kitty.

I'll give you an update on her in one of my future posts. 

Until next week. 

If you enjoyed this post (or it really pissed you off) please like, share, and/or leave a comment. I love hearing from my readers and I hope you all like hearing from me.

Welcome to a Balcony Garden

A couple of weeks ago, I wrote about the start of spring and how I had fallen back on one of my favorite hobbies: gardening. In the past two weeks, my little garden has grown a little more...in more ways than one?

I went to one of the few gardening centers still open and picked up some Boston lettuce, tomatoes, lavender, camomile, and bachelor buttons (my favorite are the blue ones. I’m having a hard time stopping myself from buying all the plants and pretty pots, but I just have to remember how much space I have.

I admit, going out and being near people right now is very stressful. I’m much happier surrounded by plants and watching the birds fly around while the squirrels play a game of chicken with the local dogs. Occasion a bumblebee will pass by - I’m glad for that because they’re becoming a rarity and we need them for the plants and flowers.

When I get a free chance, I’m outside squatting down looking into the container with carrots and peas that I’m growing from seeds. I probably look a lot like Mei from My Neighbor Totoro while waiting for signs that the plants are growing.

I knew it would take more than a week, but I’ve finally started seeing little pea shoots and the first thin stems of lemon balm. I’m hoping the carrots are soon to follow. The camomile and bachelor buttons were just planted, so it’ll be a little while yet before I start seeing them come up.

I don’t like to think that there will be a shortage of fresh food, nor do I like to think that that fear is what’s driving my plant choices. However, those thoughts do swim around my mind from time to time. It’s a lot easier plucking a couple of leaves of romaine than going out to the store for a full packet.

I’ve seen other people mention that they’re starting a garden. I hope the practice catches on. Gardening is relaxing. The planting, tending, and harvesting of plants makes me feel closer to nature in a way that I haven’t in a long time - even when I go hiking.

I know gardening isn’t for everyone. First time I killed a plant (it was a rosemary bush), I thought I’d never get another plant again. Then I got a papyrus plant and a spired plant, and I suddenly wanted to grow more.

It’s tough, it rewarding.

My garden is mostly herbs right now. I’m looking forward to having fresh mint tea and adding rosemary to my soups.

One day I hope to have a house with a decent size yard to grow a large garden. It’ll have a lot more vegetables and maybe a fruit tree or two.

That’s likely way in the future.

Until then, I’ve got a small balcony facing north - south would be better, but I take what I can. I’ve got some veggies and a lot of herbs. Soon there’ll be some flowers with cute little bees flitting between them all. I’ll likely have to chase the squirrels away.

I’ll keep y’all updated on the garden... because right now, it’s what I got.

Until next week.

If you enjoyed this post (or it really pissed you off) please like, share, and/or leave a comment. I like hearing from my readers and I hope y’all like hearing from me.