On the balcony: peas, arugula, fava beans shoots

The peas have started to sprout, still not big enough to grow up the trellis. I have three 3-gallon containers of snow peas - maybe I'll have enough plants to collect some snow pea tips for one little little side dish of stir fry (I just love snow pea tips).

Snow peas looking lovely

The arugula in the 18 gallon container is looking strong! Compared to the arugula growing indoors, you can really tell that the ones outside are much thicker and stronger. I sowed half the container with arugula and the other half with mache. But the mache (sowed on the far end) hasn't germinated at all.

Arugula, fava beans and sunchoke

I also sowed 3 fava beans and sunchokes in this container. You can see all three in the picture below. Can you spot the fava beans and sunchoke among the tree of arugula? (the sunchoke is really hard to see).

Fava beans, arugula and sunchoke....probably cannot see

The mint is starting to pop up too. You can tell it is root-bound since there is a cluster shoots coming up from the periphery of the pot.

Mint regrowing - coming back strong

Growing garlic indoors

I found a garlic hiding under a bag of barley. It had sprouted a very healthy looking bright green stem so I couldn't throw it away. I decided to try growing it indoors in a small container. Let's see if it develops into a small bulb.

Sprouted skinny little garlic

Garlic buried

In addition to this, I'm going to be growing some herbs and vegetables that don't need a lot of light. So far I've sowed mizuna and chives. I also plan is to grow some salad greens, mint and maybe cilantro and/or parsley.
The jerusalem artichoke is growing quickly. I hope it gets warm soon so that I can transplant it. The roots are screaming for more space!

Jerusalem artichoke roots in container

I have absolutely fallen in love with Jerusalem artichoke. I love to eat them raw in a salad but they are also super scrumptious stir fried with a little bit of oil and garlic. I have been reading again and again how easy it is to grow this root vegetable - I guess it is practically a weed. I am so excited to be growing them this year. The plan is to grow them in my larger 18 gallon self watering container. My thought is to grow the Jerusalem artichoke with fava beans, mache and arugula. I want to put them in soil as soon as possible, but we are still getting freezing temperatures. So I put one of the artichoke in soil in a little container about two weeks ago.

And now...I have roots!! So very cool! I can't wait to put them in their permanent home.

Here is also a little update on my yuzu tree that I started from seed around May of 2012. I think the size difference is completely due to the difference in container size. I plan to repot them both into bigger pots. I'm really excited about these tree seedlings and can't wait to get some yuzu fruit.

started same time but different sizes!

New growth on larger plant