Something ate my lettuce.
There was twice as much lettuce in there last night.
This is a balcony on the second floor of an apartment building. What could possibly have gotten up here? A bird with a taste for greens? A trapeze-swinging bunny?
Ever since I moved into an apartment with a balcony last summer, I’ve been itching to put a container garden out there. But last year the growing season was already well underway, so I’ve had to wait impatiently all through the fall, winter, and spring until the danger of frost is gone.
Now. Now is the time.
From the PBS plant sale I picked up two tomatoes (a cherry and a Roma), two bell pepper plants, one basil, and a hosta. I there are also some lettuce seeds and a pair of mots who you’ve already met. The mots are going outside for the season.
From the left: the basil and the bell pepper plants, the tomatoes
From the left: Mot 1, lettuce seeds, Mot 2, hosta, Mot 3
This is an east-facing balcony, so it’s iffy whether the tomatoes will make any fruits. We will have to wait and see.
Yards to Gardens works kind of like a Craigslist for people who want to start a vegetable garden. The idea for this website grew out of a problem that is common in urban environments: there are a lot of people in apartment buildings who would like to garden, but they don’t have space to do it. Meanwhile, people in houses may want to have a vegetable garden put into their yards, but they don’t have time to do it. Yards to Gardens helps these yard-owners and would-be gardeners find each other.
You post a “want ad” to the Yards to Gardens website listing what you’re looking for, a gardener or some gardening space, and the ad goes up on a giant map of the Twin Cities. The icons on the map show you what yards and gardeners are in your neighborhood.
Currently the system only works in the Twin Cities area, but the Yards to Gardens staff are hoping to expand to other cities soon.