Just a quick post here, but one that I’m quite proud of – the final stage of my balcony garden!
It’s been going strong all summer, growing by leaps and bounds in the hot weather and drinking up a frankly impressive amount of water throughout the heat and sun. The hops have grown crazy, and I’ve frankly kind of given up on trellising them in any meaningful semblance of order – they grow wild now, searching and clawing around the beams and each other.
It’s beautiful, though, getting to see how big they’ve all grown. The spiderplants are huge and verdant, with gloriously deep green leaves. The hanging pot is already on its second stage of growth, and some of the flowers have already bloomed, died, and are now blooming again.
While I was away in Dublin, my garden was busily growing and sprouting! I’d left some planted seedlings and dormant hops, and came back to stalks reaching out of the dirt by nearly two full feet… not to mention my indoor plants happily sprouting upward (though looking a little thirsty, I’ll freely admit…)
My first few evenings back in the States, I took it easy. I unpacked, organized all the fun things I brought home, caught up with friends, and cared for the growing things in my care. I watered, I fertilized, and I pruned where necessary.
Mostly, I appreciated the greenery, being in my own home, and the quiet of living outside the city.
I mean, think back on when kids are young… what kid doesn’t enjoy digging around in the dirt, not worrying about getting soil under their fingernails, and just having fun?
No reason to stop now that I’m an adult… right? Doubly-so, since cleaning up afterward just involves a quick shower, instead of (probably) a whole screaming fit, followed by a dunk in the bath?
I don’t have much space to dig around in the dirt at my current apartment… which, frustratingly, makes me want to garden and dig even more. I did quite a bit of gardening back in Portland, but it was usually subsumed by the work Sarah was doing, since she did a lot more flowers and garden arranging… my planting has always been quite utilitarian – I like peas, and sometimes tomatoes, with a few flowers thrown in for variance. I’m not great at designing and organizing a whole garden layout.
But you know what? That works perfectly for someone in an apartment, with a small balcony and a few pots for my plants.
There’s a small garden shop that I pass every day going to and from work – I stopped in for the first time, without much of a plan aside from “get the growing things”. I came out with a dozen little pea plants, some tomatoes, and an Azalea bush – a small one though, so don’t worry about me too much. I got a few planters, some soil, and… that’s really all I need, right? Probably?
That evening, I took a cool-down after dinner to garden again. I sat out on my balcony, under the nice incandescent lamps, and got my hands dirty. Soil and fertilizer strewn around me, big watering cans to water in the newly transplanted seedlings… I’m feeling good about this. I don’t know how well they’ll do – they get pretty good East-facing sun, but who knows how that’ll go – but in the mean time… I’m happy. I’m glad to have some growing things on my balcony again, and I can’t wait to see how they do.
