A garden in my balcony

Before coming here to Seville, I grew interested in Gardening. This is a post I wrote back then that I ended up not publishing about my first attempts at gardening (I was, and still am, a newbie, so don't judge!)


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Atempt #1

I started getting interested in gardening around a year ago, when I decided to cut the roots of a used onion and plant it again. It grew so well that it really got me motivated to try and make my old, ugly balcony into a full on oasis. I was too ambitious, to tell the truth - I knew nothing about plants, only that they needed soil (no idea how much) and water (the more, the better, right?).

So I went on with my plan: I grabbed a few sweet potatoes that were starting to sprout and put them in some cute cubic vases that I owned. I also bought petunia seeds and I was super excited when they started sprouting. Finally, my boyfriend had gotten me a mini gardening kit which came with seeds for mini watermelons. I didn't know what I was doing, but I was so happy seeing every single plant grow. When the first flowers bloomed I was overwhelmed. I became really proud of my "garden". But unfortunately, that didn't last. 

Now, don't get me wrong: It was really fun diving into this "project" head on. I was experimenting and following my instincts, and for a science lover like me, it was a really rewarding scientific experiment. However, when you start something that you don't know anything about, and don't do any research to at least know the basics, you're likely to commit mistakes and get a few disappointments. 

My plants grew - a LOT. I knew they were growing too much, but I was scared to do something that would kill them, so I just watched as they grew taller and taller. My potatoes got a plague of tiny insects and their leaves are all eaten up now. My petunias are still in bloom, but their leaves and stems are dry instead of healthy and green. And I was so excited to see what mini watermelons would look (and taste) like, but the whole plant died before any watermelon even began developing. 

Needless to say, I was pretty disappointed, but still wasn't ready to give up. 

My gardening instructor

I decided I wanted to actually learn how to do stuff properly. Although in the start I was focused on making a beautiful balcony, as I learned more about zero waste living I became really interested in growing my own food, so that became my goal. I looked for a book that would teach me how to grow vegetables in an apartment but was still easy and fun to read. I couldn't find one, but my boyfriend did, and he got it as my birthday present. (It's a portuguese book, but I'm sure there are similar books wherever you are)

"Horta" means something like a garden of edible plants, so the translation of the title is something like "A Vegetable Garden at Home"

It was everything I hoped for: It starts with the general basics of gardening and then goes through typical edible plants and how to grow them at home. It taught me so much, and most importantly, it showed me what I was doing wrong:

• Plants need space. There's a limit to how many plants fit in a pot, and if I don't take out the excess, none of the plants will make it. Not only that, they also need a good amount of soil underneath, so a thin layer of soil won't do it: you're supposed to fill the pot almost to the top with soil.
• There is a thing as too much water, and I definitely overdid it, which makes it a lot easier for plagues and diseases to get to my plants
• You're supposed to trim the plants if they get to big - they'll adapt. Instead of focusing their energy on a really long and unnecessary stem, it will all go into making the plant denser and stronger.

I know these things probably sound obvious to you, but for me, I was too unsure of what I was doing to actually put these into action. I was afraid I'd do something wrong, so I did nothing at all (besides almost drowning them...) But now I knew better, so it was time for attempt #2.

Attempt #2

Well, this time I am taking it slow. I wish I could say that it's because I learned my lesson and decided to keep it simple, but to be honest, it's because I lack time. The potatoes are still rotting on my balcony, and I'm still keeping the petunias because although the plant is not that pretty, its flowers are.

What I did find time to do though was take out the dead mini watermelons, put more soil on the vase and draw a line in the soil with spinach seeds (I filmed myself doing that, so in the future I might make a gardening video on my Youtube Channel). Looking back, I should have just put a few dots of seeds, with a bit of distance between each dot - it would have spared me a lot of work later.

ignore the dirty floor

 They sprouted wonderfully and it was time to take out the excess. It took a lot of work and I felt so bad, it felt like such a waste to throw out that many little plants, but if I didn't, none would survive.

It has been wonderful to watch them grow, but I still feel like they should have more space.

They got so big so quickly, and now the vase looks tiny for them! I'll probably need to put some of the plants in another pot so they have space to grow properly. Meanwhile, I have already harvested a few baby spinach leaves for myself!

 

 Since I'm only able to take a few at a time, I've been freezing them and when I get a fair amount, I will finally taste them! I can't wait. 

I also had a garlic clove that was growing roots, so I decided to put it in a pot and see if it grew. I did that around the same time that I sowed the spinach, and until yesterday morning, I thought it wasn't working. But it was.

I was so happy! In a while I'll hopefully have a whole garlic to harvest. 

Finally, my grandmother (after making fun of my failed "garden") got me this plant as a gift:

It is a Fuchsia flower, called "Princess Earrings" (Brincos de Princesa in portuguese). I don't really know how to take care of it, but it has been doing fine: only 1-2 flowers at a time, but still beautiful. 

And this is it! A few things I'm hoping to do in the future are: 

• Get rid of the rotting sweet potatoes
• Cut the petunias (maybe eat the flowers, as they're supposedly edible, or else dry them) and see if they get healthy again; if not, dispose of them (that will hurt)
• Take a few of the spinach plants to another vase to give them more space
• Sow or plant a few herbs and spices (I already have basil and oregano seeds, I'm just waiting for the right time of the year!)

 And hopefully in a while I'll be eating my harvest, saving money, being more eco-friendly and  enjoying my actually beautiful garden!

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So, since I'm posting this in the future, I might as well share some updates. Unfortunately, I wasn't able to do everything I wanted to do before coming here. However, my spinach grew a lot and I managed to store enough for a few meals!

My garlic was also doing pretty fine, but then... I came here. And I had no choice but to trust my mother with my plants.
I should have asked my brother! My mom didn't go there for such a long time that a couple of doves thought my garden was a great place for them to make their nest and have their babies.

Underneath the nest there is a garlic ready to be picked...

At least the baby is cute

 Obviously, once the babies were there no one wants to go bother them... so my poor spinach was left alone. Anyway... when I get back I'll think on how to get back to gardening without bothering the little babies.

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