Balcony Garden

Having a blog is strange: you go about your day often thinking "ooo... I could blog about that. or that. or that." But sometimes I forget to take key pictures that are essential to the composition of the blog entry...

Today I made a delicious pasta dish using the cherry tomatoes from my balcony garden. But I forgot to take a picture. So I drew one.


The red dots are bits of cherry tomato (from the balcony garden,) the green strips are pieces of zucchini (grown "close to home") and the yellow spraypaint is Parmesan cheese. Doesn't it look delicoius?! Imagine what the real thing looked like...

I started my balcony garden this year after being inspired by my coworker. Every year, he brings tupperware container after tupperware container of homegrown sugar snap peas, raspberries, and tomatoes saying "Take more! Take more!"

He convinced me I could do it this year, and set me up with some tomato seeds: tiny tims, cherry red bunches, cherry yellow bunches, monster reds, and others that I can't remember. March: I began indoors with the tomato plants. And here's my first baby:

From garden

Isn't he cute? I named him Tom. (Short for tomato. Genius.)

I eventually planted them in long skinny planters on the side of my balcony and last week (almost four months later,) they started to turn a beautiful shade of orange.

From garden

I picked it when it was a luscious red.

From garden

Earlier in the spring, I also tackled the sugar snap peas. So delicious. They sprouted quickly in the early spring (apparently they thrive in cooler temperature) and in no time, the plants were taller than me.

From garden

My first crop was glorious. Ate two on the spot. So sweet.

From garden

Finally, my coworker (yes, the same awesome coworker) picked me up a hanging strawberry plant. Perfect for my balcony garden. Although his strawberries were being attacked by opossums (creepy little buggers: like giant rats with raccoon diets) my hanging plant was up high in my balcony looking gorgeous above the tomato plants.

From garden

There you have it. A mini garden in the comfort of my balcony. Peas, strawberries, and tomatoes: oh my!