Year One: What I Learned

My first year of balcony gardening was TOUGH. I feel like I invested a lot of time and energy into a garden that didn't give much in return. I feel much doubt on the suitability of my balcony and of my abilities to grow food. I feel like Apollo Creed after 1 round in the ring with The Russian. But I know I can't let one bad year kick my *ss just like that. Now that I'm armed with a year of knowledge and experience, this upcoming year is sure to be an improvement.

To help you avoid the same growing pains I went through, use these learnings and tips to get started on a healthy garden.

• Growing from seed and starting indoors is challenging, especially in low-light conditions. Start some of your plants from seedlings, and don't think of it as cheating.


• Be sure to FILL your containers with potting soil. Over time, the soil will pack down considerably.


• Container soil will run out of nutrients. Add nutrients every 2 weeks or so --- compost, manure, kelp powder and fertilizer teas are your friends.


• Be realistic, but experiment. Grow what is best suited for your conditions (e.g. sun, etc), but if there's a plant you really want to grow, give it a go.


• Talk to fellow gardeners, seed exchangers and farmers to collect tricks of the trade.
  
  
• Diversify! Choose plants that do well in different conditions, and plants that mature at different times in the season. That way, you'll always have food to eat.
  
  
• If the edible part of the plant is ready to eat, harvest it now. You could wait to see if it'll get bigger, but it'll probably also get more bitter and tougher.
  
  
• Don't get discouraged. Pests, weather and other destructive conditions are sure to arise and work against you, and get even the best gardeners.
  
  
• And most of all: Spend time enjoying your garden. Bring positive energy to your green space. We garden because we love.

Aspire to Something Higher

I was counting on growing all plants from seed this year, figuring it wouldn't be too difficult: sow, water and harvest, right? But after many weeks of very slow progress, with the realization that I might not be able to eat anything from the garden this year except sprouts, I decided to try planting seedlings.

Last weekend, my partner's mother brought over some tomato plants from her own stash: 2 Beefsteaks and 1 Tiny Tom. And just yesterday, I went to FoodShare's Plant Give-Away event, where I picked up 5 healthy looking plants: 2 Golden Cherry Tomato, 1 Ruby Red Chard, 1 Cinnamon Basil and 1 King of the North Sweet Pepper.

All these babies are now replanted into containers on my balcony. With half a bag of mushroom compost mixed into the soil, and sunnier skies in the forecast, the plants should all be a happier bunch. Now that the little seedlings have bigger, stronger plants in their crew, they're sure to be more motivated to grow.

How-To: Compost Food Scraps with Worms

A few months ago, my workplace purchased several vermicomposters. Pretty progressive move for a corporate head office. Yeah, it would have been a lot cooler if we got a big fluffy dog instead, but Rover can't turn food and paper scraps into nutrient-rich "soil" like worms can. Well.......... it's debatable, but let's just agree that I'm happy with the worms-in-office situation.

The worms were purchased and delivered from TheWormFactory.ca, a small local organic farm in Ontario. Through reading and working with the worms, I've quickly learned that vermicomposting....

- Doesn't stink (literally). Worm bins allow air circulation.
- Is a good way to use shredded paper scraps. Worms consume paper, and use it as bedding.
- Is a good way to use food scraps. Worms can consume their weight in food, each day! No onions, meat or fat/oil though. My worms seem to like apple scraps.
- Worms are very independent. They can survive days/weeks without having to give them food.

With some gentle persuasion from co-workers, I decided that I should start my own home vermicomposter. The castings would be used to fertilize my future crop plants. It was easy enough to start: take a handful from one of the existing bins (worms + castings), and mix it with a handful of shredded scrap paper in a tub (with air holes). Voila: my own wicked lil wormies.

I've also picked up some great vermicomposting tricks:

- When feeding, make a hole and fill with food scraps. Cover with shredded paper to create a smell-barrier.
- Trace feeding locations in a spiral pattern. That way, the worms will learn where to look for food, and the whole bin will be used equally.
- Always have 2 to 3" of shredded paper to cover the worm's environment.
- Add water if needed to ensure environment is moist.
- When the castings are ready for harvesting, feed worms applesauce (or other blended fruit/vegetable mix) on one side of the bin. Prop the bin up on the other side, and leave for 2 weeks. Almost all the worms will have migrated to the applesauce side, allowing you to scoop up worm-free castings from the other side of the bin. Easy as pie.

Please feel free to send me a message or email if you have any questions about vermicomposting!