Amaryllis and veggie seedlings

My parents left me a bulb - I think it is an amaryllis. I've had it for 2 years and all it did was grow long leaves. This year, it has decided to bloom. And it is BEAUTIFUL! If you look closely, the petals are glittery and shiny.

  Now for the edibles. The zucchinis are doing really well, so I transplanted one into a bigger pot. I don't want to take up too many pots with zucchinis so I'm not sure what I will do with the leftover seedlings.

The tomato, peppers and basil aren't doing as well. They just aren't growing. It is getting a little warmer here, but probably still not warm enough. I thought maybe they were crowded in the newpaper pots so I thinned them out and for the stronger looking ones I repotted them in their own little newspaper pots. I also made a foiled line container so as to maximize the light from the window and my little desk lamp. Lets see how they do.

 I recently planted mesclun greens and sugar peas. The greens are sprouting like crazy and the sugar peas are starting to show its little head. I really want to get some arugula as well. This is on my weekend shopping list (as well as some starter plants...I still hope my seedlings will grow but just as a back up.)

Mesclun green seedlings

Sugar snap peas

The balcony

I moved here 2 years ago and I have not yet used the balcony. It is a good size (10x10), but I just haven't found ways to use it. I have thought about buying a grill, but I don't feel comfortable having anything flammable on a wooden balcony. It gets direct sunlight so it is ideal to grow vegetables I think. It might actually get too hot in the dead of summer. But we shall see.

 The first thing I plan to do before I start the veggie garden is to waterproof the whole balcony. We haven't had many sunny days so I have to wait for the weather to improve. While I wait for consecutive sunny days, I trimmed and re-potted the rosemary. I want it to grow vertically rather than horizontally. This is the first resident of the balcony garden.

Rosemary in new home

My seedlings are still very cute...I think though the growth should be faster. I suspect I need more light and maybe a heat mat. I'll put together a seed starting setup next year. But for now, I'm just going to continue to wait to see if these seedlings successfully grow up. I also planted lettuce and snap peas. I really want to go buy some arugula as well.

True leaf looking more true leaf-y, but these seedlings are really tiny...