Balcony gardening

May 19th - Gardening setbacks:

1. Too little sunlight in my front yard to effectively grow vegetables that aren't 12 feet of foliage in their attempt to reach said sunlight.
2. Fenced back yard has too many dogs who will eat ANYTHING, including mulberries, pecans with shells, avocado peels, you name it.  Okay that's only one dog, but the other two don't really respect the garden plants I've tried to grow in their domain.
3. My general laziness.  (Maybe this should have been setback number one.  Oh well, I'm too lazy to move it now.)  I have an unfenced area of yard that receives plenty of sunlight and was historically used for a garden.  Problem is, it needs to be bushwhacked, cultivated, and fenced to keep the deer from having a buffet.  And I have three jobs.  Sometimes more.  (WARNING: Rant impending.  For those of you who don't appreciate rants, please feel free to skip this section!)  I'm tired of working for money.  I'm ready to work for a living.  And by living, I mean actually living...not being stressed out about what I might be forgetting at one job because something came up at another job.  Or wishing I could help more with my hub's business.  Or wanting to simplify and feeling unable to do it.  Jeremy Rifkin wrote in Time Wars, "We have quickened the pace of life only to become less patient.  We have become more organized but less spontaneous, less joyful.  We are better prepared to act on the future, but less able to enjoy the present and reflect on the past."   Amen, brother!  Preaching to the choir here!  I crave simplicity and time spent more productively.  Like gardening.  (Okay, I'm back on track now.  Please continue reading.  If anyone out there is actually reading.)

Because of said setbacks, and thanks to dead decorative plants on the balcony at my office, I've decided to garden on the balcony!  The plants needed replacing anyway, so why not plant fruits, vegetables, and herbs?  So I did.  The balcony faces west, I'm watering about every other day, and so far, the plants are thriving.  I have two tomatoes (Arkansas Traveller and Black Krim) planted with parsley, nasturtiums, and marigolds, two bell peppers planted with basil (Red Rubin and Sweet) and oregano, two Climax blueberries, and a pot of rosemary and thyme.

After watching stunted shade growth, it's really exciting to see happy plants!  Hope I get to harvest something soon.