I guess I might actually start with something of a re-cap of last year's activities.
For the most part last year's balcony gardening activities were rather scattered and poorly organized. I ended up purchasing a number of different types of seeds and planting them as I purchased them. Little to no attention was paid to the timing of the planting of the seeds or which types of plants were to be grown. As a result of this lack of attention I ended up trying to grow things as climatically unsuitable as watermelon and tobacco and somewhat more suitable plants like peppers that I started far to late in the season. Not surprisingly, many of the plants individually did not produce and the garden as a whole was not particularly productive (though I did manage to harvest a few things). The plants that were most successful included some bean plants, peas, tomatoes, herbs, and a few different varieties of flowers.
Based on last year's experiences I have decided to focus this year's efforts on some of the types of plants that were more successful last year rather than on those types of plants that were less successful.
A major consequence of this approach is that this year's garden is likely to have something of an emphasis on pole beans, tomatoes, and peas, with a few herbs and flowers thrown in for good measure and variety.
Though I just started moving plants outside in the past few days it should be clear that I already have really started to fill things up. I am actually a little worried that I don't go overboard and overload our balcony.
Like last year, I have decided to try to grow a few scarlet runner bean plants around the edges of our balcony. This worked relatively well last year, though the plants were a little less productive than I had hoped.
What is particularly neat about these plants is that they are growing from seeds that I harvested from last year's plants. Now that I know that such seeds are viable I am inclined to try to keep this practice going and see how long I can keep plants from the seeds of last year's crops.
The tomatoes, which were started inside and left a little long before they were re-potted, are still looking a little gangly. I am hoping that within a few weeks they will have started to add a little weight and heft. This year I have planted only cherry tomato varieties, the hope being that the plants will be smaller and less likely to overwhelm the relatively small containers that I have for the plants. What I don't know about the plants that I have planted is exactly which type of tomato plants I have growing. The seed package I purchased contained several types of tomatoes so I will likely only know what is going on with my plants when they start to fruit.
These mint plants are actually from last year, they spend the winter in our living room. So far the transfer back to the balcony seems to have been good for them. My sense of things is that they both pots are showing a fair bit of new growth, which I presume will continue as we get more sun and the temperatures get warmer.
I have also decided to grow a few scarlet runner beans in a planter on the balcony floor to see if I can get them to grow up some netting and then across the ceiling of the balcony, which is basically what I did last year. The beans to the right of the planter are supposed to produce purple beans, though the beans are likely to change to green when cooked.
A few weeks ago I moved my tobacco plants outdoors to make room for my indoor germination operation. So far the tobacco seems to be doing relatively well in its new location. I think that at some point in the not to distant future I may have to plough it under to make room for some of the new plants, though I guess until I have to there is no reason for me to take such drastic action. Furthermore, now that I have found out that my homegrown tobacco has something of a following I am slightly more inclined to keep it around for a while, at least until it is harvested out.
I also have a few balcony garden related plants in my window. At the moment I am started a number of herbs, peas, and corn plants in this location before their eventual transfer to the balcony. At some point, likely once the balcony is filled, I may try to grow a few plants in this window on a longer-term basis.
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