These are some links to blogs, articles and supplies for balcony gardens that I snagged from another website's forum that might be of interest here. I discovered when attempting to post this that some of these links are banned from this site for some reason, but you can google them using the info provided here. ______________________________________ Turn Your Patio Into A Voluminous Vegetable Garden by: Jill Homer My first apartment was a second-story condo in an urban complex, far displaced from the groomed suburban landscapes and sprawling gardens I had grown up with. My only connection to the outdoors was a small porch, surrounded by brown siding and a fading carpet of artificial turf. To add a little color to the patio, I adopted a few small tomato plants from a friend who had started his garden indoors, and planted them in large pots near my railing. To my surprise, they started to grow. Soon I had filled the 5 x 10Â space with more than a dozen ceramic pots, plastic containers, and beach pails filled with peppers, tomatoes, cucumbers, lettuce and pole beans. Before I knew it, my porch was a curtain of green and my meals regularly featured home-grown vegetables. cont'd http://www.rentaldecorating.com/gardenpatio.htm **** Question: My husband and I recently moved to an apartment. I am seeking ideas for inexpensive vegetable patio gardening. There isn't much direct sunlight on our patio. Hardiness Zone: 8a Michelle from Dallas, TX Answer: Michelle, Growing vegetables on your patio certainly doesn't need to be expensive. The lack of sunlight, however, could prove to be a problem. For successful growth, most vegetables will need a minimum of 5 hours of direct sunlight a day. Some will need even more. "Leafy" vegetables (cabbage, lettuce) will tolerate the least amount of light, but vegetables like tomatoes, cucumbers and carrots will need more sun. You'll have to experiment to see what grows best. To maximize the light you have, use strategically placed shiny materials and light colored rocks around your containers to reflect light back onto the plants. The most inexpensive way to start vegetables is from seed. Varieties labeled "patio, bush, or dwarf" are often bred specifically for container gardening. Saving seeds from year to year will cut down on expenses even further, but you'll need to start with heirloom seeds and avoid hybrids if you want offspring true to the parent plants. Just about anything that can hold a soil can be fashioned into a container: pails, trashcans, dishpans, plastic detergent or cat litter containers (cut down), wooden or wicker baskets, or even old leather or rubber boots. I like containers made from plastic materials, even though they tend to deteriorate over time with repeated sun exposure. They don't dry out as fast a terra cotta, transfer heat or rust like metal, and you can usually recycle them when you're done using them. If you use plastic containers, try not to spend much on them. Crops with shallow roots, like radishes, beets and onions, will grow just fine in old cake pans. Provide cages or trellises for climbers like beans, peas and cucumbers to save space, or plant them in hanging baskets and let their vines trail downward. If you don't have anything suitable on hand, shop around at flea markets, rummage sales or dollar stores. Make sure your containers have adequate drainage holes on the bottom. In regards to a growing medium, plan on using a very light soil or a soil-less mix-something that will drain rapidly, yet hold nutrients and keep the plant's roots consistently moist. You'll need to water your vegetables daily and feed them frequently with a 1/2 strength liquid fertilizer like fish emulsion. http://www.sustainable-media.com **** BALCONY OF DREAMS - A great little balcony garden blog by someone who has made a hobby of finding interesting spaces around the world http://balconyofdreams.blogspot.com/2007/01/tokyo-architects-balcony-garden.html **** Balcony Gardens bring another dimension to your life! Being an apartment dweller shouldn't keep you from having a garden. Many types of gardens can be created on balconies. With the addition of floral color, a balcony becomes an entertainment center just right for relaxing. Turf, small shrubs, and dwarf trees can be used to create a suburban landscape in miniature above the ground. Balconies even offer the opportunity for food production, with flowering fruit trees and container-grown herbs and vegetables. Whether transforming a high-rise penthouse or a simple second-floor terrace into a garden, a set of guidelines will aid in creating your "garden on high." First, consider how you wish to use the area. Are you looking for a colorful relaxation area or just privacy from an adjacent high-rise? Second, evaluate the microclimate. Toward which direction does the balcony face? Note how much sun the area receives and for how long. If the balcony is recessed, does direct sunlight reach it at all? If the situation is very open, will you and your plantings be subjected to buffeting winds and scorching sunlight? Look at the area with a very critical eye before putting a lot of money in to the project. Some minor remodeling may need to be done to make the area inviting to both people and plants. Safety considerations are another important factor to think about. Most balconies are required by building safety codes to support 60 pounds per square foot. Be sure to use a lightweight growing media which can reduce weight by up to 60% over standard garden soil. Avoid using heavy containers; plastics and cedar wood are recommended for low-weight situations....cont'd http://www.scotttorrance.ca/Quickstart/ImageLib/0008crop2_fmt.jpeg ** The website that hosted this article is banned from GardenWeb (it's called Gardener's Corner). If you want to finish the article you'll have to google it. I usually cut and paste the first sentence into a google search to locate a specific article.** ***** Bed of Grass http://www.scotttorrance.ca/Quickstart/ImageLib/0008crop2_fmt.jpeg www.scotttorrance.ca/home.html ***** Rooftop Garden site with Balcony Garden section: http://rooftopgardens.ca/en/balcony ***** Apartment Balcony Decorating Ideas (Oh My Apartment): http://ohmyapt.apartmentratings.com/apartment-balcony-decorating-ideas.html http://ohmyapt.apartmentratings.com/apartment-gardening.html ***** Article and website: Living On The Edge - Balcony Rooftop Designers Guild ***** Supplies: For small plants another type of vertical container: http://theverticalgarden.com / All Kinds of Railing & Fence Planters: http://www.hooksandlattice.com/rapl.html Teak Planter Boxes: http://stores.ebay.com/DIAMOND-TROPICAL-HARDWOODS_Teak- Planter-Tree-Boxes_W0QQcolZ2QQdirZ1QQfsubZ970795QQftidZ2QQtZkm Hammock Chair http://www.hammocksource.com/Hammock_Chair_girl.jpg A comfortable, inviting place to sit would be important for me. Either a cafe table and chair, or better yet...one of these hammock chairs (and stand) particularly the ones that are full enough to also allow you to pull your feet up and then stretch them out with the hammock stetching the length of your legs - __________________________________________________ Connect with other apartment dwellers in your area who are avid or closet gardeners by starting a Meetup Group around this topic: http://www.meetup.com /

Thank you Melanie! I sent it to all my friends! What beautiful pics!~Angie

Hey there- Here are a few of my Favs- There may be a few dupes- http://www.perennialresource.com/ http://www.seeds-by-size.co.uk/mfl-8-98.htm http://www.earthnotes.tripod.com/seeds.htm http://www.seedrack.com/index3.html http://www.eskimo.com/~mcalpin/tm.html http://www.jlhudsonseeds.net/ http://www.gardenmakers.com/germination_codes.htm#PB-3 http://www.plantworld-devon.co.uk http://www.fsm.pvt.k12.mn.us http://www.terranovanurseries.com/pages/plantsA1.html http://www.extension.umn.edu/yardandgarden/YGLNews/YGLNews.html http://www.renegadegardener.com I am still searching for a comprehensive list of transplant dates. That would be something I could use to determine when to start seeds indoors for optimal growth needed before it is time to plant outdoors in the garden- (not too much/long , not too little/short). It seems I had better luck at finding that info last year..... Terra Nova Nurseries is pure eye candy!! I do hope these may be of interest - Julie

Just1tomato, It sounds like you really are gung-ho to grow! It would help to know where you are located and what zone, because those things factor in to any decent answer. Once you understand how, tomatoes aren't hard to grow at all. I grow hundreds of them from seed every year and have at least 75 in my garden on average. First, many stores start offering tomatoes before the last frost date. In my case, that occurs in May, but stores put them out way early (April) to seduce customers into buying. Tomatoes are WARM weather plants that don't much like temperatures to fall below 55. They sulk and don't produce until they are happy with the soil temperatures. The best temp range is 70's to mid 80's. I have grown tomatoes in containers-both indeterminate and determinate types. Big plastic containers that hold 5-7 gallons of loose, aerated potting soil with peat and perlite/vermiculite are what I used. And I supported that tomato with a cage or twine, etc. It doesn't matter what variety, but you will get more tomatoes per plant if you grow a smaller fruited variety. THe beefsteaks don't produce as many per plant. If you haven't got room for many, you can get small bushier growing types that are determinate. Take a look at a website that specializes in tomato seeds for writeups about varieties to try. Then you can maybe find them already grown as transplants to pot up. I can only speak about my area of growing--I transplant after Mother's Day up to June 1. RIght now, my tomatoes are still green. But I have early, mid and late varieties, so some will be ready sooner. That is a piece of information you will find on the tomato seed sites--days to maturity. I will start getting tomatoes ripened within the next couple weeks and on until frost unless we get a late blight. Yes, you can grow tomatoes in the winter indoors. But you have to have very strong light as they are sun lovers. You should look for indeterminate tomatoes with small fruit like cherry tomatoes for this. Since stores will not carry tomato plants then, you will need to start from seed under lights. It takes 6-8 weeks for me to grow a transplant from seed. So to plant out in May, I start seeds the first week of April. You would need at least that much time to grow a decent sized transplant to pot up for winter. I hope this helps. Be sure to check the Tomato Growers forum here on gardenweb. They have a wealth of information.