Apartment Gardening

The hubs and I live in an apartment. This is great for a lot of things, but kind of hard in other ways. However, I'm finding ways around the hard parts and enjoying not having to worry about it if the dishwasher breaks or if the sink leaks.

Today is the first full day of spring (it officially turned spring yesterday at 7:21 pm, if you were wondering), so I had to celebrate. While getting a few things at Target, I ran past the gardening section. I mean, why not? So I don't have a yard? There are ways around that! I bought a few plants in small planters and I bought one big planter and went to work. A few weeks ago, I bought strawberries, green peppers, and tomatoes, and they've been plodding along in my apartment near the window. The time had come to move them outside, and this had me inspired. Why not plant more? I mean, it's cheap, easy to keep up, and so rewarding. Have you ever eaten something straight off the vine? Beyond amazingly delicious and so worth the wait. So here's what I added: green onions, white onions, chives, cilantro, parsley, red bell peppers, and just because, zinnias and a garden flower mix. I can't wait for my balcony to overflow with goodies for the eyes and for the tummy. Let me show you what it all looks like. However, you'll have to forgive the water spots on the ground. I may have tripped over the water pitcher and spilled a little. Go fig.Here's all the beauties, lined up in a cute row.
The large window planter has my pre-sprouted tomatoes, peppers, and strawberries. This is also where my green and white onions will live.
This planter set used to house parsley, oregano, and cilantro. There are a few dead ones on top from last year, but this is where my flower garden will grow. Besides, a few dead leaves that I didn't have the energy to remove won't hurt anything.This year's cilantro plant is in of these cute little pots until it gets going. Same with the zinnias and red peppers. I'll put them in a planter like the big yellow one when they get themselves all sprouted.
As is indicated by the markings on the porcelain pots, this is my chive and parsley collection. How cute are these? And they're the perfect size to be brought in when it's time to utilize them.

As a young girl, my dad was insistent that we have a garden every year. I thought this was weird. What kind of hard working attorney with 5 obnoxious kids has time for a garden? Well, the older I got, the more I came to appreciate this. We grew and sold raspberries by the crate, we canned our own tomatoes, salsa, fruit, beans, corn, etc. We grew our own potatoes, onions, carrots, broccoli, cabbage, radishes, peas, pumpkins, cucumbers, and about a zillion other things. It was a bit of a time investment to plant all of that business and to keep it watered in the not-so-cooperative Idaho climate, but to be able to rely on ourselves was pretty awesome. And to eat something that was totally 100% because of your efforts was amazing. I'm excited to get to do that in my own little way this year. Go, balcony garden, go!