Top 10 Secrets for Growing an Urban Balcony Garden

Photo Credit: Marie Viljoen

Marie Viljoen has an apartment in Brooklyn with a small terrace that allows her to have a garden. She has a table and 2 chairs on the terrace and she grows much of her food in her garden.

In this article, she shares her top 10 tips for planting and nurturing an edible urban garden. I found her tips to be very practical and really helpful. There are also some wonderful photographs of her terrace garden. Here are some of the things she discusses:

What kind of soil to use
A strategy for selecting plants so that you’ll always have something blooming
How to organize your plants on your terrace, patio or balcony, so that they will thrive
Learn what the easiest-to-grow edible plants are
What you can do to add a vertical element to your garden.
And MORE!!

Click on the Top 10 Secrets for Growing an Urban Balcony Garden link below to see Marie’s wonderful article and excellent tips.

Top 10 Secrets for Growing an Urban Balcony Garden

Everything You Need to Know About Bokashi Composting

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compostguy.com

Bokashi is Japanese for “fermented organic matter.” Although it’s often referred to as a composting method, it’s really an anaerobic fermentation process.I’ve heard this described as pickling your organic waste.

When you use the Bokashi Method you layer organic scraps (fruits, veggies, meat, dairy) with a Bokashi mixin a bucket. The Bokashi mix is made of wheat germ or sawdust, molasses and starter microorganisms You can either make the Bokashi mix or buy it.

After layering, you put an air-tight lid on the bucket and let it ferment. After 10 days or so you can use the results of the Bokashi fermentation in your compost pile or you can mix it into your garden soil.

It’s easy, can be done on a small or large-scale and is virtually odor-free. In this article, The Compost Guy explains everything you need to know to start using the Bokashi Method. He explains:

What Bokashi Is
Advantages
Disadvantages
How to Get Started
A video that explains how to make your own Bokashi mix
A bunch of helpful resource links

This is an example of a complete Bokashi Composting Kit that includes a 5 Gallon bucket, air-tight lid, bottom drain, and everything you need for fermentation.

Click on the Everything You Need to Know About Bokashi Composting link below to learn more about this interesting composting/fermentation method.
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Everything You Need to Know About Bokashi Composting

How to Make a Strawberry Pallet Planter (Includes a Video!)

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lovelygreens.com

Tanya wrote a blog post last year about how to make a strawberry planter out of a wooden pallet. I featured the article because I loved both the repurposing of the wood and the wonderfully clean look of the final planter.

Well now Tanya has added a terrific DIY video that shows each step of building a strawberry planter with pallet wood. It takes approximately 2 hours to build. She also explains which type of pallets and tools to use. It’s a really helpful video.

Click on the How to Make a Strawberry Pallet Planter (Includes a Video!) link below to see Tanya’s article and video.

How to Make a Strawberry Pallet Planter (Includes a Video!)

What is Square Foot Gardening?

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melbartholomew.com

Square foot gardening works in both small garden spaces and in larger gardens. The idea was created by Mel Bartholemew. It’s a form of raised bed gardening that is very popular.

You build a 4’ x 4’ planter box, line it with weedcloth, and fill it with a particular blended mixture of soil. Then you add a wooden grid that partitions the box into 1’ x 1’ squares. After that you can plant your crops in each square using Mel’s recommendations on number of seeds.

I like a lot of things about this method. It can be used in areas with poor soil. It reduces seed and water waste. It also looks pretty neat. I think you could raise the boxes higher by adding legs or putting them on top of wooden platforms. This would greatly reduce bending and stooping for all gardeners.

Mel claims that you can grow your garden plants with:

50% of the cost
20% of the space
10% of the water
5% of the seeds
2% of the work

This article explains everything you need to know to start gardening using square foot gardening. There’s also a short video where Mel discusses the method.

Click on the What is Square Foot Gardening? link below to read about this exciting gardening method.

What is Square Foot Gardening?

How to Make a Mini Garden

youtube.com

This is a nice video that demonstrates how to make a Mini Garden (Also known as a Fairy Garden). These are small container gardens that are often landscaped and contain a variety of plants, a focal point like a ceramic house, and other features like tiny stone paths.

These are real gardens and are really growing in popularity. There are online website shops that sell miniature bird baths, benches, fencing, furniture and more. It’s perfect for people who have no space for gardening or have health or mobility problems.

Click on the How to Make a Mini Garden link below to see the video.

How to Make a Mini Garden

How to Harvest Lettuce in a Container Garden

youtube.com

In this short video, Mike demonstrates how he harvests lettuce from a container in his urban garden. One of the neat things about lettuce is that if you harvest it correctly, the plant continues to grow new lettuce leaves. Nice video!

Click on the How to Harvest Lettuce in a Container Garden link below to see the video.

How to Harvest Lettuce in a Container Garden

How to Build a Garden Potting Bench

designdreamsbyanne.blogspot.ca

I love potting benches because every single one had its own personality. Anne needed a new potting bench for her mudroom. She decided to build it herself.

She provides a link to the plans that she used for her bench. If you go down to the “Getting Started” section, you’ll see another link that will give you the materials list, cut list, a detailed drawing and step-by-step build instructions.

Ann explains how she built the potting bench and customized it for her needs. I think she did a wonderful job.

Click on the How to Build a Potting Bench link below to see the complete tutorial.

How to Build a Garden Potting Bench

Smart Self-Watering Devices for Plants

gardentherapy.ca

Keeping your plants and flowers watered while you’re away on vacation can be a challenge. Having a friend or neighbor water your plants doesn’t always work out. Praying for rain also doesn’t always work. This post by Stephanie offers several solutions.

As she says:

“Summer is the perfect time for weekend getaways like camping, cottaging, and boating. It’s also the time that the garden works the hardest. Summer heat and sun can be brutal on plants, with new plants, containers, annuals, and vegetables needing daily watering. Just one three-day long weekend can mean the end of these plants as they dry up and scorch in the hot sun.

I’ve had this happen to me often enough that I have put in some research and tried out some cool high-tech and low-tech products that can help to save the day (and your plants!).”

She then goes on to share information about a variety of devices you can use to water your garden while you’re away. Some devices are better for larger gardens, but some would work well for smaller gardens.

Here are just a few devices she discusses:

Bubble spot soaker
Vegepod® Container Garden
Plant Nanny™ Watering Spikes (I like these a lot for container gardens)
+ 6 Others!

Click on the Smart Self-Watering Devices for Plants to see all of the self-watering devices that Stephanie discusses.

Smart Self-Watering Devices for Plants

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How To Choose Garden Gloves

gardeningknowhow.com

If you’re debating using garden gloves or want to know what to look for in selecting garden gloves, Darcy has written a post that may help you.

She begins:

“Ok, not everyone is a fan but wearing loves in the garden is actually important if you want to avoid pricks from thorns, splinters or nasty blisters. What’s every bit as important, though, is the type of gardening glove you choose.”

She goes on to discuss:

Why gardeners choose to wear garden gloves
The danger of fungal infections
The Pros and Cons of 4 different types of garden gloves

Click on the How to Choose Garden Gloves link below to see Darcy’s complete post.

How To Choose Garden Gloves

[Read More…]

Growing Pet Bowl – Cat Grass

SeedsNow.com

The Growing Pet Bowl – Cat Grass includes everything you need to grow wheat grass in a bowl for your cat. As it grows, you can clip some off from the tips and sprinkle it over your cat’s food.

Note: As with anything you give your cat to eat, start out slow and don’t overdo. I regard wheat grass as a treat. I give a little to my cat and don’t give it to him every day. I also make sure that he can’t get into the bowl where the wheat grass is growing.

Wheat grass has a lot of health benefits for your cat.

Constipation – It helps your cat to be regular
It stimulates blood flow which results in more energy
It flushes out toxins
It contains all sorts of vitamins: vitamin A, E, B, calcium

Click on the Growing Pet Bowl – Cat Grass link below to learn more.

Growing Pet Bowl – Cat Grass

[Read More…]

Which Seeds Do You Direct Sow & Which Seeds Do You Start Indoors?

SeedsNow.com

There are some seeds that do well when you directly plant them in the ground. These are generally plant seeds that tolerate cooler temperatures and are also at risk if transplanted. Other plant seeds do better if started indoors and are then transplanted when the weather is warmer.

This post lists vegetable and herb seeds that are either best planted directly in the ground or are better started indoors.

Click on the Which Seeds Do You Direct Sow & Which Seeds Do You Start Indoors? link below to read more.

Which Seeds Do You Direct Sow & Which Seeds Do You Start Indoors?

[Read More…]

SeedsNow – The Best Organic, Non-GMO, Untreated, Heirloom Seeds

SeedsNow.com

Now that Spring is here (Yay!), I wanted to share one of my favorite sites for buying garden seeds online. Seeds Now has a huge assortment of organic, non-GMO heirloom seeds. These are open-pollinated seeds and are reasonably priced.

They have veggie, herb, and fruit seeds. These are quality, heirloom seeds that grow really well. The individual seed packets are really economical.

One thing I really like is that they have “seed banks.” These are collections of seeds in a category. For example, the All-in-1 Herbal Medicine Seed Bank contains 20 different popular herbal remedy seed varieties so that you can put in a complete herbal remedy garden. You get 13,000 seeds with that collection. Another example is a Spring/Summer Seed Bank that includes 20 varieties of veggies, herbs and fruit. There are several other seed bank collections.

Then they have variety packs of seeds for herbs, hydroponic greens, cucumbers, tomatoes, mosquito repellent plants, medicinal herbs and more.

They also have all sorts of gardening supplies and gifts for that special gardener in your life. I love the Garden in a Bag and Garden in a Pail gifts, which are perfect for kids!

If you place an order be sure to use Coupon Code “SAVE10NOW” to get 10% off of your order.

Click on the SeedsNow Online Organic Seeds link below to check out SeedsNow.

SeedsNow Online Organic Seeds

Prepping for Fall Planting and Gardening

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gardenupgreen.com

Carole starts prepping her garden and planting in July for the plants she wants to see in the Fall. In this article she explains how she prepared a raided bed garden for a little crop of miniature pumpkins.

She uses a Hoss Wheel Hoe to till the soil. She also shows how she set up a wire frame using cow panels. This will allow the pumpkin vines to grow up and out.

Click the Prepping for Fall Planting and Gardening link below to read the complete article.

Prepping for Fall Planting and Gardening

53 Favorite Backyard Projects

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Photo Credit: E Spencer Toy

If you’re looking for inspiration and tutorials for backyard projects to tackle this summer, this article could help you! Sunset has collected 53 different backyard projects. Some would work well in smaller spaces.

There’s a wide variety of DIY projects: fun, gardening, furniture, decorative, landscaping and more. If you see a project you like, click on the picture for a more detailed description. You’ll also see a link to a tutorial.

Here are just a few of the projects:

Lay a Flagstone Path
One-Pot Vegetable Garden
Wavy Picnic Table Project
Small-Space Salad Box
Votive Chandelier
Party Umbrella
Shed Roof Birdhouse
DIY Garden Swing
Green-Roofed Bird Feeders
DIY Fountain
And MORE!

Click on the 53 Favorite Backyard Projects link below to see all 53 projects.

53 Favorite Backyard Projects

21+ Stunning DIY Greenhouses You Can Make for Your Gardening

mixer2mower.com

If you have any space at all in your backyard, you can build a greenhouse. It allows you to start seeds and grow plants in a controlled environment with a lot of focused light. This article features 21+ different greenhouses that you can build yourself. If you see a design that you like, just click on the link under the picture and you’ll get the details for that greenhouse.

There are:

Basic Wooden Box Greenhouses (I like this one)
A $50 Greenhouse
A Storm Window Greenhouse
A Flea Market Greenhouse (Beautiful!)
Barn-Style Greenhouse
And MORE!!

Click on the 21+ Stunning DIY Greenhouses You Can Make link below to see all 21 greenhouse ideas.

21+ Stunning DIY Greenhouses You Can Make for Your Gardening

Suncalc Sunlight Calculator by Luster Leaf Review

: lusterleaf.com

I had quite a few emails about sunlight calculators and why I like the Suncalc 1875 Sunlight Calculator by Luster Leaf. So I decided to write a short article and review. You can see it here: Luster Leaf 1875 Rapitest Suncalc Sunlight Calculator

When you buy plants or flowers they have a tag that among other things lets you know the lighting requirements: Shade, Partial Shade, Partial Sun and Sun. These categories specify a range of time that the sun hits a spot in your garden.

Shade: 0-2 Hours of sun
Partial Shade: 2-4 Hours of sun
Partial Sun 4-6 Hours of sun
Full Sun 6+ Hours of sun

One of the challenges of gardening is to understand how much sun each area of your garden gets during a sunny day. Once you do, you can match plants, veggies and flowers with the same sunlight requirements to a good spot in your garden. This can greatly improve your gardening success.

In the past, one method gardeners would use is the creation of a Garden Sun map. This involved sketching a picture of their garden area, including any building or trees. Then every hour they would note where the sun was hitting their property and mark the time on the map. They would also draw a line to show where the sun stopped and the shade started. By the end of the day they would be able to draw a new map showing areas of sun with start and end times. That would help them to identify the shade, partial shade, partial sun and full sun areas of the garden.

It’s a tedious process and many gardeners don’t have the time or inclination to create Garden Sun maps.

An alternative to manually creating a Sun Map is to use a Sunlight Calculator. This is a device that measures the amount of accumulated sunlight in a specific garden location. Some sunlight calculators require multiple readings and you then take an average of the readings. Others give you a reading after a testing period of a given number of hours.

So I love gardening – the digging in the dirt, planting, watering and nurturing my plants. I grow flowers, herbs and vegetables. The last thing I want to spend my time on is manually mapping the sunlight in my garden. I also think the process is somewhat subjective. That’s why I use a sun calculator.

I picked the Suncalc 1875 Rapitest Sunlight Calculator by Luster Leaf for a number of reasons. Here are the Pros and Cons.

Pros

It’s simple

I have to elaborate on this point. This calculator is so simple that a child could literally use it. Wait for a sunny day. Put it in a flowerpot full of soil and place it where you want to test. You can also stick it in the ground but I use the flower pot. Make sure the round gauge is parallel to the ground. Turn it on. Go do something you enjoy. Come back in 12 hours. An LED light will be blinking next to the sunlight type: shade, partial shade, partial sun or full sun. Voilà you are done. You can then test another area of the garden.

This works for container gardening too. Just put the Suncalc in a flowerpot filled with soil and put the flowerpot in the location you want to test. This can be on a balcony, patio or anywhere.

It’s accurate

We did a manual check of a normally sunny spot in the garden. Our manual calculation was 5 hours and the Suncalc reading was Partial Sun which was accurate.

It saves time

The price was right

Cons

Some people might like the exact number of hours of sun an area receives. The Suncalc gives you a category that represents a range, for example Partial Sun 4-6 Hours of sun.
I have read complaints that the SunCalc is not waterproof. I haven’t had any problems with this. But I have always used it on days when the weather forecast predicted sun and no rain. I saw one suggestion to put plastic wrap over the gauge. However, I wonder if that wouldn’t affect the accuracy of the gauge when the sun was out.

Conclusion

If you’re looking for a nice, simple, reasonably priced sunlight calculator, the Suncalc by Luster Leaf is a good choice. If you need the exact hours of sunlight an area receives or if you need a sunlight calculator that’s waterproof, you should research other products.

Where to Buy

I checked online and the best price I found was at Amazon.com. Visit the link below to see current pricing.

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