I finally got off my butt...

...and got a patio (balcony) garden going. Ever since I moved into this apartment, I have wanted to do something with the fairly large space on my balcony, so about three weeks ago, when I was at K-Mart and saw a "grow your own garden" kit I decided to just do it. I bought that along with some wildflower seeds (runner beans, black-eyed susans, butterfly weed, purple coneflower, mammoth sunflowers) and some herbs (basil, cilantro, parsley, dill, and lavender). Ever the supportive boyfriend, Josh was happy to oblige my latest project :)

Hopefully, this project will turn out well and I can entertain on our little patio oasis a bunch this summer.

WEEK ONE
I planted the seeds in the seed starter kit and WOW! It worked! Within a few days the sunflowers (the super tall sprout) and runner beans were already ready to be transplanted and the others had begun to sprout.





Okay, okay, so those of you who garden probably know that the reason the sunflowers were growing so fast is because... well, they will grow up to be HUGE. I made a beginner's mistake and didn't research ahead of time what I was going to plant. As I found out - a bit too late - is that mammoth sunflowers apparently grow up to 15 feet tall! OMG! So, in an effort to keep them to around 5 - 6 feet, we planted three of them in a 12-inch pot. So far so good!

WEEK TWO
After adding some store-bought herbs, we now have a pretty good herb garden going on our patio. From left to right, we have rosemary, pineapple sage (smells divine!), mammoth dill, mint, chives, and lavender. We also have the parsley, basil, and cilantro growing in the green rectangular planter in the next picture.

The flowers are also doing well. We planted bachelor's buttons, strawflower and hydrangea in the pretty blue, yellow and green pots on the top shelf. On the second shelf, we have some more bachelor's buttons and strawberries. The strawberries are doing really well and I can't wait to taste them! We plan to add some more flowers as they are ready to plant. Oh yeah, and on the left on the floor are the runner beans. They are actually vines, and we are hoping they climb both the bamboo trellis we put in there and the shelf. *fingers crossed*


Pictured here are butterfly weed and some black-eyed susans planted around them. The butterfly weed grows pretty tall with vibrant orange and yellow flowers and the black-eyed susans are yellow daisy-like flowers. I was hoping to get some variety in this pot, but I'm kind of afraid all the plants will be really tall. Again... we will see!

Here's Josh takin' in the gorgeous ABQ weather on our balcony :) I can't wait til we can have guests over to enjoy it with us.