Successes and Struggles

The garden's growing well so far--lots of little wins to report on, as well as a few roadblocks, too.

Cheers!

My vision for an outdoor paradise is starting to come together. All but three of the lanterns that lit up the summer night's sky last year still work after a rough winter outside. Sadly, the hooks they hung from did not fair as well, so now they hang from the railing instead.

I actually think this will be less annoying than the old system. Every time a storm blew in the lanterns came down. Besides, I don't see how a little more light could hurt the plants.

If you look closely, you can see some new containers hanging out on the balcony. They are the new homes of my root vegetables. The closest container holds two rows of white onions while the far container is incubating carrots, fennel, kohlrabi, and radishes.

I'm having doubts about the viability of some of the goodies in the far trough. The seed packages were pretty specific about giving the plants more room to grow than the planters allow. Let's just say I'm already bracing myself for one failure.

Boos!

My project hasn't gone as smoothly as I wanted it to. When I finished planting the non-onion trough, I tried to move it off of the patio table and onto the ground. But, in the process, I accidentally tipped it over ... and everything inside spilled onto the table, chair, lanterns, and floor.

It was such a mess! I meant to take a picture for proof, but I moved into cleanup mode a little too quickly. Luckily my man friend was here to help me calm down and sweep up the dirty, muddy mess.

In the process, though, we found something bad. Behind the central air is a pigeon's nest, complete with three eggs. It would explain why a pair of those crazy, dirty birds keep hanging out on the balcony during the day, but I'm not pleased about the whole thing.

As much as I hate to hurt baby animals, that nest has got to go. I don't care that I'm wrecking a family--they're going to wreck my garden. I haven't quite figured out how to do it yet. Basically, I have two options. I can just shove it off the side of the balcony, onto the ground below. Or, I can scoop it up, put it into a trash bag, and throw it down the garbage shoot.

Either way, I need a partner in crime to get the job done because of how precariously close to the edge of the balcony this nest is. And I need gloves, because, as we all know, pigeons are dirty and carry diseases.

Keep Reading

I have some seedlings starting to sprout, but it's just too dark to take any photos to show them off. I'll put those up later on and share more about their progress. Also to come, fun ways to label seedlings so you know what's coming up where.