The Balcony Garden Goes Awry

We reached the conclusion of the Balcony Garden Experiment.

We actually concluded this one in November, but with the rush of the holidays and the dreary January days coming, I decided to save this story for you so that the tale might lighten up the dark days of winter with a bit of humor.

At the end of the summer I went to the Internet and researched balcony gardening. You can find pages and pages online about gardening in small containers, and I devoured them all. Surely all this reading would lead to fruitful (hah) results!  I worked out a variety of balcony gardening containers that were low cost or no cost, bought my potting soils, and planted the seeds with care. The sun was bright in the afternoon, an imperfect arrangement because of the heat, but I monitored the water and the soil and made sure my little vegetables didn't dry.

I had every intention of growing enough carrots for at least one salad, and spinach to make that salad on. I figured that wasn't too much to ask of a novice!

Eddie stands in my planters and tries to eat the dirt, a decent representation of how this whole experiment went. 

The first few weeks were positive. I started the large plants in little containers made from milk cartons at the right time. Everything sprouted on schedule. I soon had a bed of romaine, dozens of carrots, even some little Swiss chard and spinach sprouts. I kept Eddie off the balcony so he wouldn't eat the plants or the dirt.

Ah, those were the days. Soon the long summer days began to fade away. The days shortened, and the sun passed lower through the sky. 

And there was the problem. The sun soon passed by my little plants below the height of my building for more and more of the day, until no sun at all was actually hitting the balcony deck. 

Oops. 

Well, plants can't grow without sun. I take that back. Some plants can grow without sun, but generally not edible winter vegetables (that I know of) and definitely not the ones that I chose. 

Oh, they did live! But my little vegetables rate of growth soon slowed to snail's pace. What follows is a tour in pictures of my little garden at what should have been harvesting time. 

These are carrots. I never bothered thinning them because I realized they would never get large enough. The biggest ones are in the front, but if you look in the background you'll see the pathetic tiny ones.

This was my Swiss chard plant. I realized it was never going to grow, so I didn't bother to bring it in when a freeze hit and now all I have to show you is the sad picture of Swiss chard that I left to wither in the cold. I'm sorry, Swiss chard.

These are spinach and romaine. If you noticed that the romaine looks nothing like romaine, that's because it never grew more than its first or second set of leaves.

And here is the crowning gem of my garden. A few tiny carrots. The're on a paper towel, and I think the biggest is maybe an inch long.

Well, that's all for the balcony garden. I can't try to grow anything until the spring, and I have learned a valuable lesson. Know how much sunlight your garden will get throughout the season, not just when it starts!