Growing up my family always had a nice sized garden that all the kids would work in every summer. So many wonderful memories of us harvesting cucumbers, tomatoes, grapes, and other delicious goodies to make our afternoon snacks still come to mind. I always knew that I wanted to have a garden of my own one day because of how much I enjoyed the process. I often found myself saying “When I get my house I’m definitely having a huge garden”. The irony in that declaration was the fact that I continuously moved from apartment to apartment because I did not want the responsibility of maintaining a house. This meant that my garden would be something I’d have to wait for.
Last summer I finally decided that I was tired of waiting. I wanted to grow my own food and I was tired of waiting for the day I would be ready to move into a house. Turning my balcony, of my downtown apartment, into a garden oasis couldn’t be that hard, right? Only one question…what should I start with? Now I’m no stranger to growing things. I have had Many house plants that I’ve successfully kept alive over the years so I was pretty confident in my ability to expand into growing food. Plus my teenage experience had to count for something, right? I decided it was best to keep it simple, at least to start with. I figured growing some of my most used herbs would be the best to start with because they’re practically house plants…I hope.
Again, trying to keep things simple I went with a kit that had the soil tabs and the container to provide humidifying environment needed. Basically the instructions said to pour hot water on these tabs and they would turn into a little pouch of soil ready for your seed to be stuffed in the middle. The herb starter pack I picked up from the store included things dill, cilantro, sage, and similar so I grabbed a few seed of each and put them in the middle of the soil. I made sure I kept the container humid by spraying it with water every time it looked a little dry making it the perfect environment to start seedlings. Within a few days I was elated to see that they all had sprouted into these tiny little victories! Next up, transferring them into pots.
I started out using individual pots but ended up transferring them into a single box, I would later come to regret this decision but we’ll get into that in a moment. As a frequent traveler I knew had quite a few upcoming trips and would need to find a way to water my garden in my absence. After a bit of research I ended up buying a solar powered irrigation system online. My balcony faces west and I live on the top floor so I get unobstructed sun most of the day. Lots of sun is great for growing but it also makes my plants extra thirsty. The irrigation system and a big jug of water was the best solution. The only downside was that the system did not have enough stakes for the number of pots I had and I didn’t have time to get more. I figured the best thing to do would be condensing all of them so they could be easily watered. Not too long after I had a lots of beautiful fresh herbs! Thankfully almost everything survived my first two week trip away. The only one that seemed to be lost in a phoenix-like cycle of growing, then dying, then growing, and dying once more was the lavender. Other than that the rest of the herbs were growing even better than I expected. At one point they were growing so fast I started harvesting and drying them to make homemade herb blends seasonings. Pro tip: I use my airfryer to dry the herbs out because it speeds up the process a bit.
Remember when I said I would later come to regret putting them all in a single container? The above pictures is exactly why. One herb became so invasive that it choked out the roots of all the herbs around it until there was not much else growing. It did not my matter how much I tried to cut it down it had already worked its way through the roots before I ever noticed. This eventually became a bit of a nightmare so I gutted the container and put the herbs in their own containers.
Gardening Lessons
First thing I learned is that unless I’m growing on a much larger scale I have to be careful with having so many herbs in close proximity with one another. I decided to return them back to separate pots and I expanded my irrigation set to handle the setup. I also learned that I was not a fan of the soil tab starter. It was a great for a beginner but I did not like that it never broke down. When I was clearing out the box after the invasion I noticed that the little bags were all hanging out just below the surface even after the invasive plant spread. Even though there was a little trial and error I was just happy to finally get started on a life long dream. What was the first thing you grew in your garden, or what would you grow?