Balcony Garden, Early Spring
Hello beefriends! I planted my first seeds 18 days ago, and so far I have turnip, tomato, and pumpkin sprouts growing! See if you can guess which are the pumpkins, 12 days in:
toms, turnips, and PUMPKINS
This is my first time growing pumpkins so I am excited. :)
Today I had to restart the compost, because the full bucket I had going molded a lot, so bad that I was just like ...nope. And started over. I was wondering why the mold, and then when I was changing out Yuan's cat grass I saw that that soil had a little of the same green mold in it!!
new compost beginnings/little spots of green mold in the old grass pot
The last time I had changed his grass I had put the spent dirt and grass into the compost, so I guess that's where it came from. I have not had the cat grass mold before so my best guess is that it's because that container didn't have very good drainage. I want to plant another big outside flat for him but I haven't yoinked something to serve as the flat yet (the one I was using last year was plastic and had become so brittle, pieces were breaking off, so I chucked it), so I just planted another small indoor flat for him for now (in a different pot!), and I'll figure out what to use for outside another day. I like to plant him big wide flats that not only last a long time but also because he likes to lay in it and nap, or sit in it while he noms:
I also planted a pot with clover seeds outside today, as the little starter pot I had inside hadn't sprouted yet, and I wondered if it wasn't too warm in my apartment for them. I think clover is a cold-weather sprout, so we'll see how direct sowing outside in April does (normally you don't want to put things outside until mid-May here, because it can still get cold and snow. We've had many a Beltaine snowfall here!). If it gets really cold and snowy I can always move the pot inside or put it under the greenhouse roof I made out of old CD cases.
I made the CD greenhouse 8 years ago and eventually the "house" part fell apart but the roof is still intact and I still use it! It was only held together with Elmer's glue so it's actually impressive that the roof is still going, I think.
Yuan was a good helper as always and hopefully we'll have a nice balcony garden to hang out in soon as the weather warms up. I still have to find where I hid the wingnuts to put the table back together... 😅
You can even see the folded greenhouse roof next to him under the air conditioner
Early spring in Colorado can be pretty tempermental, so gardens start slow, but the trees are beginning to bud and flower so green is on the way! ^_^
Have a great day and thank you for reading!
I've never really thought mould an issue for the compost, but then it all happens outside for me, so I guess it's a different situation on a small scale. Does more carbonaceous material help here?
Those pumpkins should be fun. I'm guessing they'll be taking over your whole balcony soon! I'm looking forward to seeing them nearer autumn.
I will also note that the mold had started small scale earlier in the winter, but it was little enough that I stirred it in and figured it would work out like it had before. At the time I didn't have enough ventilation in the new compost bucket, so I added more holes. Well apparently that was not enough because it really took over!
I did make sure to have more browns when I started over because it was my feeling that that would help too. I tore up some newspaper and cut up some plain cardboard. Usually my compost has a lot of that but I hadn't been cutting up any paper during the whole fall/winter as I was busy with the move and setting up and whatnot, so that may have been a contributing factor as well.
Hey have you grown pumpkins before? I was debating between putting them in my garden flat out in the courtyard (wide but shallow), or in a 5 gallon bucket on the balcony (deep but skinny). They can trail around in either case but I don't know if their roots prefer to grow down or across, do you know?
They are pretty hardy, so I think they'll adapt to either. Whenever I pulled mine up at the end of the season they'd usually spread out more, but I don't know if that's in response to avoiding the clay layer underneath.
Look at that cat enjoying your garden! may they grow healthy
Yuan really does enjoy the balcony garden! I often find him napping in the dirt or underneath a chair or the wagon. He likes peeking down to the street below too (there's a gap in the wall he can see through). :)
The cold and snow must be really disturbing. We don't such here and hence don't practice indoor gardening, planting is done in the open and basically everything grows here. Though different state grow different flowers due to difference in temperature.
It always amazes me when I hear people talk about living in pretty stable climates without a lot of fluctuation. Like even in the north, I always thought Ireland/Scotland/England/Wales must be very cold, right? No! They're mild! I didn't realize this until a British friend was complaining about the weather online and I was like ...but that's nice? And I googled the average temperatures where they live. Mild year round.
Meanwhile in my city we can range from -20F (-29C) to 105F (40C) from winter to summer. It can dump two feet of snow on you one day and three days later it's all melted and 60F (15C). In February. I'm not exaggerating, either. xD
We're where desert meets prairie meets mountains, so the weather gets really weird, really fast. Another time I was reading some website that was comparing different climates and the closest comparison to us was Afghanistan, and I was like OH yeah that makes sense! LOL Altitude cold desert mountainous weirdness.
It takes a while to get used to it, but once you do it's quite nice because you know even if the weather sucks one day it probably won't for long because it's so unstable. :)
Oh my, am not sure I can get used it a fluctuating weather as such.
Am so used to the distinct and specific weather here with their constant timing..
And I can predict when it will get cold or hot.
Well thank goodness, God knows how he created us to get adapted to each of our environment.
Never heard of Cat Grass @phoenixwren , do you mean catnip? or catmint? (I'd never heard of catmint until I went shopping for plants and looked unsuccessfully for catnip)
That's a good looking kitty you got there my friend!
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No, it's just wheatgrass or oat grass generally, but called "cat grass" because it's safe for them to eat. If you're buying from a seed catalog you might look for wheatgrass but if you're buying from a pet supplies place you'll look for cat grass. :)