Recycling potting soil?

Last year, the bulk of my garden expense was spent on potting soil - approximately 5 bags. I really do not want to replace all the soil because of the cost but also for the lack of space to dispose of last year's soil. I have one bag of composted cow manure and half a bag of fresh potting soil that I can use to amend the old soil. So I've been dumping the old soil in a bucket, adding some fresh potting soil/manure/crush egg shells/fertilizer, mixing it around and getting as much roots out as possible. I also think it is important to break up the old soil to loosen up the compacted soil. I bought a sieve from the garden store but it turns out filtering the soil through the sieve is A LOT of work. So I've resorted to breaking up the soil with my little shovel. Even this is really tedious and I do not look forward to dealing with the larger containers.

Stored egg shells crushed using a mortar and pestle to be added to the soil.

This green bucket is very useful for mixing the soil. 

My little seedlings are 10 days old and now have all sprouted. They're looking quite good.

Pak choi and Swiss chard seedlings.

Romaine lettuce seedlings

Space issues @ charm city garden

Last year I got very excited about starting all kinds of seeds and ran out of container space and had to "kill" the overstock. This year I am trying to be more realistic about the space that I have, but I may have already over-sown (not sure if this is a word). Right now, I have started pak choi, red romaine, green romaine, swiss chard, sweet basil, and thai basil. The basil will stay in the kitchen, the spinach and kale was directly sown in containers on the balcony. I have a little space in the back and to the side of the house where I plan to grow the lettuce and possible the swiss chard.

Two long containers on the fence for lettuce (on top is where the balcony garden is).

Containers on the side of the house - still need to be cleaned up. 

I also have a couple of containers in front of the house. In one of the containers I have thyme and rosemary that survived the winter. I am not entirely sure what I will grow there but I am thinking some  herbs and maybe zucchini and hot peppers.

Containers in front of the house. I plan to remove the small containers and the crate

Oh, and I started the sugar snap peas indoor as well, this will go in one of the containers on the side of the house.

Post-cleaning and 2012 first seedlings

I really wish I cleaned up the mess from last year's garden at the end of the season. Cleaning is so tedious and exhausting.  Pulling out the old plants is messy and difficult. My forearm was all scratched up, the balcony was full of dirt and leaves.  I wanted to do a thorough job, but I got tired at the end and called it good after pulling the plants. After sweeping, reshuffling the containers and restringing the wind barrier, the balcony is looking pretty good.

Balcony cleaned and organized

I still need to clean the containers that are in front and back of the house. I will have to wait for another sunny day to work on that. In the meantime, I've been anxiously waiting for the first seedlings to pop out. I must admit that I am pretty impatient, but fortunately on day 4 the pak choi showed its pretty little head. Exciting!

Pak Choi seedlings on Day 4

I have the seedlings set up on the windowsill. Last year when I started the seeds, I did not use any light and I ended up getting very leggy seedlings.  So now I am using a desk lamp as a source of light.

Seedlings with desk lamp

Pak choi seedlings up close

I plan to get a heating pad eventually - especially when I start sowing the tomatoes, eggplants, and peppers. On Thursday, I also sowed spinach, kale, and beets directly into 3 and 5 gallon containers. I can't wait to have all these vegetables in my garden!

Sowing the first set of seeds.

Thai basil to the left, and sweet basil on the right

I paid a visit to Valley View Farms in search of Thai basil seeds.  I've also started sweet basil - the pesto I made last year has been such a great thing to have. I hope to make a whole bunch more this year. It occurs to me that I could probably have basil growing all year round in the kitchen. Yes, I think I will do this.

I was so excited when I also found a package of Cherokee purple tomato seeds. Last summer I bought a variety of heirloom tomatoes from the local farmer's market and these were hands down the best tasting tomatoes. I'm not sure if they grow well in containers - but I'll just have to try. Since my wish list for this year's garden keeps growing, I have looked into getting some space in a community garden. Apparently there is a waiting list for gardens in my neighborhood so unfortunately, this may not be an option.

I also picked up some lovely smelling mint. This winter I fell in love with mint tea, so I'm hoping I can make some of my own. I'm also planning to make some mojito this summer!

So far, I've started pak choi, romaine lettuce and swiss chard. I also plan to sow beets, sweet pea (need to get more seeds) and the radish that Granny sent me sometime this week.  It is great to be working with soil again - I had forgotten how fun gardening is!

Getting ready for garden 2012!

The weather is starting to get warm and Spring is fast approaching. It is time to start getting ready for balcony garden 2012! I got lazy after my last harvest last year and my balcony is in shambles. There is a lot of work to be done!

I need to pull all the old plants and replenish with new soil. I need a sieve to get rid of all the roots, but I haven't been able to find one anywhere. I could look online, but I think it might be quicker to make one.

The rope that was holding up the wind barrier cloth was not weather resistant and disintegrated. I read that nylon rope is UV resistant and is stronger than the poly-something-or-the-other rope I was using. Hopefully the nylon rope will keep the wind barrier up. Then I have to clean up the balcony overall.

I forgot to harvest one bok choy, but now I have pretty yellow flowers on the balcony.

There are also fun things to do like starting lettuce, snap peas, basil, and bok choy indoors. I might also pay a little visit to the local garden store:)

Versatile Blogger ^o^;;

Time flies!!! My balcony garden is pretty much dormant (amazingly I still have to pick some peppers!!). I am very happy with the productivity of my balcony garden. Early in my gardening/blogging adventure, Annie from Annie's kitchen garden was one of the first people to give me words of encouragement and share some seeds that she thought would do well in containers. I was so touched by her kindness and now...(well 2 months ago), she nominated me for the versatile blogger award!!!

I am very honored and humbled to be nominated by such an amazing gardener!

Now following the instructions, 7 random facts about me:

1. I am very surprised at how much I am enjoying the whole gardening experience.

2. I would like to live in San Francisco some day.

3. I speak 2 languages, English and Japanese, but I hope to learn Spanish and Chinese (I haven't decided Cantonese or Mandarin). They say if you are bilingual languages are easier to pick up...but if you learned to speak the 2 languages at a young age I don't think this rule applies.

4. I had been a perpetual student and got a "real" job 3 years ago, but now I am contemplating going back to school. I think the truth is, I just don't want to face becoming an adult with responsibilities.

5.  When I was little I wanted to own a bakery.

6.  I developed allergy to some fruits - apples, pears, peaches, plums. This saddens me. I can however, eat them in pies:)

7. I volunteer with CASA. It is inexcusable that there are children in this country (or any parts of the world for that matter) that do not have parents/guardian.

Now, I don't know 15 bloggers, but to name a few of my favorites:

My initial research started with Bucolic Bushwick. I got ideas about self-watering containers from her.

Diana from Kebun Malay-Kadazan Girls always has beautiful pictures of her harvest and cool recipe ideas for the various veggies she grows. She has something growing all year round. I hope to have a garden like that some day!

A fellow Maryland gardener. Wendy from Greenish Thumb has great recipe ideas. She frequently posts really cute picture of her daughters too:)

A blogger from Portland OR, Holly covers traveling as well as gardening at Tasty Travels. I wish I could travel more too!

I actually have been lagging behind in blogging. I need to catch up with all my favorite blogs! Thanks again, Annie, for the award!!

Monday Harvest - October 3, 2011

I was nominated for my first online award by Granny from Annie's Kitchen Garden!! I will comment soon, but for today I will like to post some pictures of my harvest from last week.
First I have a bunch of thyme to dry. Since it getting cold, I need to move some of the herbs inside.

I've got some bok choy, peppers and hot pepper.

The GIANT chinese pepper plant is still producing very cute small peppers.

And some lettuce. These lettuce are slightly bitter, but it also has slight hint of shiso flavor (the herb used to make picked plum).  I really like it!

I'm joining gardeners around the world for Harvest Monday hosted by Daphne!