Starting a vegetable, fruit and herb garden on my balcony | Part 1 🍋 🍓 🍆 🥒

thedrewtrott (51)in #garden • 7 years ago

Growing your own vegetables is never easy - it takes a tonne of time and resources to successfully grow your own food but it can definitely be worth your efforts and have a tasty payoff at the end.

My new home has 2 balconies, each with different degrees of sun exposure. So I decided to up the ante on my vegetable growing attempts. I have had around half of my collection below for more than 6 months and moderately tended to them but I think it is time to take it a little more seriously and put in the hard work.

So I bought a bunch of new vegetables last week to add to the rest and thought it would be a fun idea to share my progress with you guys.

Mixed lettuce

I have never attempted to grow lettuce before and I have a very good feeling that I will fail these little babies miserably. They just seem like they will dry up at a moments notice and leave me feeling empty - if I can get at least 1 salad out of this guys I will be pleasantly surprised.

Passionfruit

To date, the fruits I have tried to grow have served me well. No, they haven't made any edible fruit yet, but they are growing strong so far and I have high hopes for my little passionfruit buddy here. Those big leaves look very appetising to caterpillars though, so I'll have to keep a keen eye on him.

Lemongrass, capscium (peppers) and eggplant

Lemongrass, that's pretty hardy from memory - I recall growing some before from a leftover stem I had one time and man that stuff grows fast. I expect this one to go well. Capsicum and eggplant are new to me and but I feel like they will grow nice and tall with a little TLC.

Tuscan kale and cucumber

Again, kale and cucumber and new to me but I eat a lot of the them so figured it was worth trying to grow some - if anything just for the learning experience. I feel like they will be highly sought after by pests and will have to watch them closely.

Jalapenos

This guy is so resilient. It was borderline dead so I gave it some fresh potting mix and started watering it a lot more and it look at it now just 1 month on!

Marionberry (Blackberry)

Same goes for this blackberry bush - it reached this stage a few months ago and died right off for some unknown reason. So I cut it all back to around 8cm stems and it went crazy again. Each vine is growing an inch or 2 or day.

Blueberry

My mum gave me this fella around 8 months ago when it was tiny. Slowly and steadily it continutes to get bushier and has so far produced 2 whole berries.

Garlic

I had a leftover clove that started to turn a little green and sprout so I popped it in some soil 3 weeks ago and this is where it is at now. I feel like it should grow relatively fast and serve me well.

Rosemary & Curry Plant

These two herbs are pretty stagnant now. They have been together for around 4 weeks and haven't changed 1 bit since then. No grow and no death - that's kinda successful, right?

Mint

Another one of my return of the living dead plants. This mint was long gone and then I started watering it everyday and giving it as much sun as possible - now it is thriving!

Sweet Potato

Like the garlic above, I had a sweet potato that I decided to sprout on my window sill to try my luck at growing it. After a week or two of floating it in a glass of water it shot up and pushed out some roots. Today I put it in some vegetable potting mix and will see if I can get this thing booming.

I would love to hear your thoughts or experiences trying to grow any of these vegetables, fruits or herbs so drop some comments below and help me maximise my gains!

7 years ago in #garden by thedrewtrott (51)

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minnowvotes (2) 7 years ago

You got a 31.81% upvote from @minnowvotes courtesy of @thedrewtrott!

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sneaky-ninja (59) 7 years ago

Sneaky Ninja Attack! You have been defended with a 3.96% vote... I was summoned by @thedrewtrott! I have done their bidding and now I will vanish...Whoosh

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