Sprouts!

My thumb may be green after all--stuff is sprouting up all over the place on the balcony.

Herbs

So far, my miniature herb garden may be the biggest success story (comparatively speaking, of course) so far. They're growing like crazy. I need to start researching when to harvest, how often it needs to be done, ways to dry the fruits of these plants, and, well, basically all the basics of growing on herb garden. To think I thought the growing would be the tricky part!

Peppers A Poppin'

Just because the herbs have the best growth at this point doesn't mean I can't brag about the rest of the garden. My peppers are wasting no time in introducing themselves to me. So far, every single starter set I planted has a plant peeking out of the soil. Now I just can't kill them.

Jalapenos, Banana Peppers

Pepperoncinis

Not All is Good News

My strawberry plant appears to be dead. Very, very dead. Granted, for all the things I did to it and forgot to do for it last summer, it probably should be. I was a bad gardener then.

I've been holding out hope that my refreshed dedication to urban farming would bring it back to life, but, alas, it seems I'm wrong. If no green appears by next weekend, I'm buying a replacement strawberry plant for that pot.

The blueberry plant appears to have a slightly brighter future ... or at least a more alive one. I'm still skeptical about how this one will fare, but, this whole thing is really one big experiment. It makes sense that I would have some really wild things mixed in with the practical pots.

Name Tags

I have a problem with plants. Once they actually start growing, I can't tell them apart from weeds. Especially plants in the same family, like the pepper tray. Initially, I tried using a paper tag taped to the outside of the tray, but a necessary evil known as water keeps splashing onto the ink.

I tried it on the outside of the herb pots, too, if you remember (see photo from original entry), but that lasted only a couple of days before the tape refused to stick. Luckily, I may have found the solution-popsicle sticks!

It makes sense--they're big enough for big writing, and they're tall enough to keep themselves dry when shoved into wet soil. Plus, I've had enough room left on the sticks to mark their birthdays (or the date they were planted on). Plus, they're kind of fun looking inside their homes.

A multi-colored pack of Sharpie's makes color coding super easy. My garden wasn't really big enough to do that with, but I'm sure someone out there in the world has a big enough balcony to need such a clever organization trick. I can only hope to have that myself someday!

Still to Come

Keep checking back for an update on the pigeon situation. Let's just say things have taken a dramatic turn in the battle for territory. Plus, some of my more adventurous seedlings are starting to peek out in their trough.