Pictures / Overview of this year's balcony vegetable garden so far!

This year's balcony vegetable garden so far!

So! I'll get right to it, the moment you've been waiting for - I present: this year's vegetable garden, balcony-style!

Here you can also see the approx. size of my balcony. I wanted to leave room for a table and 2 chairs, as well as for not only the plants to grow, but spots for more pots, such as some chili plants that are not ready to go outside yet. I got a few plants transplanted this week (zucchinis, tomatoes, chilis), and seeds out last week, and as you can see, some have already come up! Exciting! It's been pretty crappy weather lately, pretty rainy and not all that warm, but I'm hoping things will shape up soon and I will see some germination in my peas and pole beans.

Herbs (from left to right): lemon balm, cilantro, mint; chives, rosemary, parsley; oregano, sage, thyme. The far left pot are plants I bought and transplanted, as well as was the rosemary, since mine didn't survive the winter after all.

My lettuce was a paper band of seed, with 3 varieties of leaf lettuce: Batavia Lettuce "Teide", Leaf Lettuce "Grand Rapids", and Leaf Lettuce "Lollo Bionda". Three kinds in one planter, it's great! And the bands make it really easy to plant.

I also now prefer red onions (here "piroska") because of their milder flavor, which are also great picked and eaten as green onions!

I decided to try something else new this year, micro greens, here the "mild mix - Brassica and Amaranthus", from Botanical Interests! I'd seen a package at the seed store last summer, and it just seemed appetizing. It's basically a mix of various seeds (such as red beets, cabbage, kohlrabi, pak choi, and swiss chard) that are meant to be planted together and harvested once they reach about 1-3 inches. I'm hoping they all grow at the same rate! I may also let them get a little bigger. They'll be great to top salads, in sandwiches, or on crackers with cream cheese!

The only other non-standard items are my pole beans - they are purple ones, which also bear pretty purple flowers. They are pretty much the same consistency when ripe of a normal green bush bean, but are deep purple in color. Here, "blauwschediger spek".

Here's how my window sill inside (right next to my balcony) is looking so far:

Here you can see a few chili plants (jalapeno, purple jalapeno) in the front, a basil plant, an aloe vera plant (which won't go outside), and my greenhouse, which is home to an extra tomato plant and my "white lightning" habanero chilis, which seem to be growing very slowly. I suspect they need a lot of heat, so I'm keeping them in the greenhouse as long as possible. I'm also glad I decided to keep a jalapeno and purple jalapeno plant indoors - the ones outside are looking a bit beaten up, probably due to wind and cold temps. Plus, something ate off a few leaves on both plants! I don't think it was my cat, so bird? Squirrel??

Things are definitely shaping up in my edible balcony paradise, now let's all hope for some warmth!