Copy of Vegetable Garden grown from Seeds

“I always wanted to have a vegetable garden....and since we live in an apartment... we improvised!”

Always hoped to have a fabulous vegetable garden?

Us too, but we  live in the middle of the city in an apartment….so balcony railing it is!

The girls wanted to see how vegetables grow from seeds, luckily they asked at the start of spring so we continued strong right through October!

Here’s the quick list of what we did:

1. picked our seeds and got a seed starter kit with pellets (followed instructions too)
2. replant into pots where they have a lot of room (I use foldable pots so that I can empty them and store them in the winter)
3. don’t forget to peel off the outside layer of the pellet so the roots have space to grow…
4. use good soil - helps if it’s for vegetables
5. water, water, and water some more
6. fertilize: here’s my friend’s homemade recipe
7. watch grow and…
8. pick and eat!

How we did it:

1. We started at the hardware store and picked some seeds along with a seed starter kit with soil pellets.  We placed them in a safe place indoors where there’s lots of light and watched them grow week by week until we were ready to plant them outdoors.

Jiffy Pellet Greenhouse

NOTE: Our tray had five rows, so each row was a different type of seed.  We picked tomatoes, basil, sage, chives, and cilantro.  The tomatoes where the ones to grow the easiest and fastest, the basil was a close second.

When it was time to replant the seeds, we used pots that fit our limited outdoor space.

We used outdoor railing planters and foldable planters (“planting grow bags””) for for the tomatoes that grow tall. 

Important to remember:

FERTILIZER: when replanting, just before you put the roots into the pot, add some homemade fertilizer.

This can be made from every day items you have at home and I find it reminds me to keep all these items from ending up in the trash….

Blend together:

1. eggshells
2. banana peel
3. coffee grinds from your morning coffee
4. a bit of water to help it mix

SPRAY BOTTLE: Use a spray bottle in addition to a watering can to spray the leaves, it helps get fresh cool water on them and stay lively instead of looking wilted, essential on the really hot days of summer.

Water 2-3 times a day depending on the heat and sun exposure!

We’ve been picking tomatoes since mid-August and are still going strong!  We just added a bit more of that homemade fertilizer last week to replenish the soil.

As a surprise, we had blue tomatoes mixed in with our normal tomato seeds!  So… we chopped them up with our other tomatoes, basil, and chives and there you have it: summer salad!