My garden, last year

It's starting to warm up, here in the Czech Republic, and although they are announcing another freezing bout, I am slowly starting to think about my balcony garden. You probably saw some pictures of flowers on the blog already. This is part of my inspiration for my balconies. The second part is the veggies :). Here is a picture from last spring when everything was potted.

I had quite a lot of lettuce, that was a great investment because I could take the leaves for salads and the plants would grow and grow so I always had fresh green leaves for me and my friends.

But on the whole, the end result was not as I had hoped. I did have more tomato plants than the year before but I did not get that many tomato due to some strange sickness that affected the store bought plants and none but not one of them flowered.

Also, and most importantly, there were a few very violent storms that destroyed my plants and taught me one important lesson, make your container garden on a balcony sheltered from wind and heavy rain but with just enough sun. I did have some succes with the zuchinni but the same storms damaged them as well. And I did get one decent crop of radishes.

You could say that my balcony garden was a failure. Well, no, it was just a trial. This will be the third year I make my balconies green and I have high hopes. I will not splurge on plants as last year and I will concentrate on good and reliable sources for my plants such as farmers and small nurseries. And I will plan better,  also buying more appropriate cultivars which work better in smaller spaces.

Some of my resources: lifeonthebalcony.com urban organic gardner and container gardening for food. My target is this picture from container gardening for food.

I don't necessarily agree to all the ideas these guys have but for me gardening on my balcony is a fun way to spend time in spring and summer. What do you grow on your balcony?