Still Growing . . .

The hardest part is the waiting.

Everything is growing and doing splendidly. Nearly all of my seeds have sprouted. I am still waiting to see signs of life from the Wonderberries, the Ground Cherry, the Pink Banana, and Thai Red Papaya. One of the surprising growers of the last couple of days was the cucumbers. I decided to plant a couple of the cucumbers in the seed trays (though they are supposed to be planted directly) just to get them started at the same time as the rest of the veggies. They sprouted almost immediately and are already one of the biggest sprouts.

This one is the Horace Boyette Burpless Cucumber:

And this is the Parisian Cucumber sprouting:

The tomatoes are also doing really well. Both the Carbon and Black Cherry varieties are starting to show progress.

One of the best growers from the first greenhouse tray that I seeded were the flowers. The Jewel Peach Melba Nasturtiums have become downright gangly, and the Camellias are also beginning to get so long that I think I will soon be transplanting them to pots.



The seed trays are beginning to look full of vegetation, so I decided to start working on getting my balcony organized so that it will be ready for when I begin transplanting. I cleaned up all the plant debris and detritus that was laying around, and I pruned the existing plants to get them ready for Spring.

My Ichiban Eggplant already thinks it is Spring. It began flowering like crazy a couple of weeks ago and now I have a plant that is covered with tiny purple eggplants. I finally got a trellis for it. Last year I just let it sprawl everywhere, but this year, as space will be at a premium, I decided it needed to start growing more vertically. Hopefully the upward mobility will help it produce more eggplants as well.





And Marcus Aurelius, my polydamus swallowtail caterpillar is still in his cocoon. I am amazed by how closely his chrysalis resembles a green leaf. I have no idea how long he will remain in the cocoon. That is something I should probably research. So far, he's been ensconced for a week.

Soon I will purchase large quantities of potting soil and begin transplanting the cucumbers, flowers, and herbs and direct plant the beans, onions, and radicchio.

Seed Starting Round Two and a Homework Assignment

When I got home from work today a fat package from Baker Creek Heirloom Seeds was waiting for me in my mailbox. I have been impatiently waiting for the three days it took for Baker Creek to send me the seeds. One of the packets I ordered was for Pink Bananas! I understand that they can be difficult to germinate, but the thought of having my own small pink banana tree is just too tempting.

I immediately divided the seeds into thirds so that I could send portions to my mom and to my best friend. This took some time as I had really ordered WAY too many seeds.

Then I got out my second 72 cup seed tray (I'm using Jiffy) and planted the few seeds that required seed starting.

My first tray of seeds is already doing me proud. I have fully sprouted mustard greens and mesclun, and I can see the very beginning of sprouts happening with my herbs and peppers. I'm still wait to see signs of life from the tomato plants though. Here's a photo of the progress only 4 days after sowing the seeds.

Most of what I purchased for this second round (beans, zucchini, melons, radicchio, herbs) did not require seed starting, so I put those seeds aside for when I am ready to sow them into pots. I need to make sure the worst of the cold weather is done and my balcony is transformed into a garden space before I plant them.

And speaking of transforming my balcony into a garden space, that needs to happen ASAP. Since the cold snap that killed half of my plants in December, my balcony has been a plant wasteland and garden prep station. It is thoroughly trashed, but I have a plan. As embarrassing as it is, I am posting the before pictures here, so that when it is cleaned up it will seem all the more of an accomplishment.

Another spur of the moment garden decision I made was to purchase a caterpillar. I was at the Winter Park Farmer's Market on Saturday and came across an entomologist who sold various kinds of caterpillars so that people could watch the transformation process from caterpillar to butterfly. My caterpillar (who I named Marcus Aurelius to both inspire him to greatness and annoy my mother) is a Polydamas Swallowtail and will eventually turn into a brilliant swallowtailed butterfly. I'll post some pictures of him along the way to document his process. Right now he is simply busy eating and pooping. I had no idea how much poop a caterpillar could make!

Lastly, I stopped by the library today and picked up a stack of books on canning and preserving. I know that I have months to go before I need to worry about saving some produce, but I want to have some knowledge under my belt well before that time. I also want to pick out some favorite recipes to keep me motivated.

Up next, seed sprouting updates, balcony transformation, and some book reviews. . .

In the Beginning There Were Seeds

So a couple of weeks ago I read Farm City: The Education of an Urban Farmer by Novella Carpenter. It completely inspired me. I have been disenchanted with life lately: I am living in a city I don't care for, doing a thankless job, living far from friends and family. I need something to look forward to in my days. This book gave me a direction to achieve that. I decided to try my hand at my own small-scale urban garden.

I live in a condo in the middle of a large South Florida city. I have no land whatsoever. But I do have a lovely little West-facing, screened in balcony. I have a couple of rose bushes and some mint growing out there now. But after reading Carpenter's book, I have visions of juicy tomatoes, crisp peppers, cucumbers, zucchinis, melons, beans, and anything else yummy I can cram out there. I have romantic notions of coming home from my artificially-lighted cubicle and spending my evenings re-potting, weeding, tending, and harvesting from my balcony garden. I even  hope to be able to harvest enough to try my hand at canning and preserving some of my bounty.

But first things first. I have been reading about Genetically Modified Organisms (GMOs), and though I think that they have a certain utility, I also think that the science and technology has been drastically over-used to increase profit and property rights of giant seed corporations (I'm looking at you Burpee, ConAgra, and Cargill) at the detriment of entire produce lines. Seeds have become the property of corporations, and these corporations don't want you to become self-sustainable, they want you to be dependent on them for your produce/seeds.

I want to take myself out of this industrial cycle, so I chose to buy heirloom seeds that are guaranteed to be GMO-free, natural (non-hybrid), and open-pollinated. These are seeds from hardy, old-world stock that have survived from times well-before chemical pesticides and herbicides were introduced. These heirloom varieties tend to be hardier and tastier than their industrial cousins, and their seeds can be replanted for generations to come.

I decided to jump into my heirloom seed purchase with both feet. I ordered 14 seed varieties from Baker Creek Heirloom Seeds that I thought I would get the most use out of: Black Cherry Tomato, Carbon Tomato, Purple Beauty Pepper, Sweet Red Stuffing Pepper, Black Night Pepper, Tam Jalapeno Pepper, Southern Giant Curled Mustard Greens, European Mesclun Mix, Chinese Mixed Chives, Greek Dwarf Basil, Genovese Basil, Broad Leaf Sage, Jewel Peach Melba Nasturtium, and Balsam Camelia Flowers (just because I think they are beautiful). I knew I would have a ton more seeds than I could use, but I convinced friends and family to try this urban gardening experiment with me and planned to send my excess seeds all over the state of Florida.

The seeds arrived from Baker Creek in three days! I was so excited to get started. I immediately drove to Lowe's to pick up a couple of seed trays to start my plants. So on Thursday night I sowed my first seeds.

Then I waited.

I sent the list of seeds that I had purchased to my mother to let her know what seeds she would be receiving from me. She was looking forward to starting her own garden, which would be much larger than mine because she actually has a yard she can utilize. She wanted to get some more seeds though. Things like onions and beans. She asked me if I'd make another order.

So I've made a second order of seeds. Together we will be receiving: Pink Bananas, Banana Melon, Wonderberry, Ground Cherry, Dill, Horace Boyette Burpless Cucumber, Parisian Pickling Cucumber, Chinese Red Noodle Bean, Thai White Seeded Long Bean, Malaysian Dark Red Eggplant, Sleeping Beauty Melon, Violet de Galmi Onion, Variegata di Chioggia Radicchio, Wando Garden Pea, Costata Romanesco Zucchini, Thyme, Cilantro, and Thai Red Papaya.

I think I am going to have too many plants.

So today is Monday, and I haven't received the second package of seeds yet, but the first plantings are already starting to sprout! I have salad and peppers already coming up. I am already feeling a little accomplished.

I want to grow the plants in recycled materials as much as possible. My father made me some earth buckets (aka global buckets), and I plan to re-use some containers that I have around the house (unused cat litter pans, litter buckets, plastic containers, etc.) to cut down on the amount of pots that I will need to purchase. I have some clay pots that I will be able to use as well, and I am hoping that I will not have to buy very many new ones. I hope to be able to fit a lot of plants on the balcony by using some shelving to keep smaller plants up off the floor, trellising, and some of the larger plants, like the banana and papaya trees and the mustard greens in large movable pots in my condo's entryway. I need to make the most of the outside space that I have.

The next step will be to start the second package of seeds when they arrive and begin to build the shelving structures and trellises on the balcony so that they are ready to house the plants when I pot them. Pictures will also be forthcoming.