Garden Started!

It is a really foggy morning here in the bay, and the first thing I did when waking up was to check on the new seedlings that I planted yesterday. It was colder last night than I had hoped, and it seems like it may be a bit chillier than I would like for the next few nights. I had to replant them into their permanent homes right away as they were growing up too fast for their starter medium. I built the new tower for the cucumbers and zucchini that I planted. I am not sure if it is good enough, nor is it really tall enough I am sure, but they were the longest dowels I could buy at the store we went to. I guess I could just run them along the railing if needed. Hopefully the neighbors don't complain!


Only two of the beans seemed to have germinated. Once they broke through the dirt, they were the size you see now in two short days. I am hoping that the other beans are working slowly under their starter medium and will surprise me soon. I would hate to have such a bad batch for germination. When looking at the medium pots, I do see some small roots that appear to be coming from the beans, but they could be pieces of roots from the other ones that grew out and into the other pots. Hopefully they are the new roots! I am also pretty sure this trellis is not going to be tall enough. My Dad says that I can run the beans up and then back down and up again over the trellis. We will have to see how it works out. Perhaps more will be using the balcony railings!

I am growing peas this year. Last year I tried beans only, and got bush beans at that rather than pole beans. I am hoping that the cool conditions we have here are hospitable for this variety. They seemed rather happy when I looked at them this morning. They had a great germination rate and showed up quickly in the starter medium. I actually really love looking at their lacy style of leaf pattern. I was also surprised at how firm these seemingly delicate leaves actually are. After planting these seedlings yesterday, I watered them with water that was mixed with root stimulator. I hope that they take root and grow well. Now that I know that I have vine varieties, I am going to attempt to train them to trellises this year. I am not sure I can make the larger zucchini and cucumber listen to me, but I will try.

Yet to come are more bean plants, the tomatoes, peppers, and some herbs that I started. The herbs are up and small as well as the tomatoes, but the peppers have not shown up at all either. I may have to start them again, we will see. I am also going to directly seed green onions, radishes, beets, and perhaps some really old lettuce seed that I have been kicking around. I will keep you updated as to the balcony garden process.