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 /

Saint Clair Shores here. its certainly not too late for grafting here yet. new growth should be pushing and I've barely got buds expanding. I'm betting you're not much further along than I am. ~Chills

Julia, I will probably join the group, but might not make the meets as I am in Ned and I prefer meets that are closer to home. But, I'd probably go once every month or two because it sounds like fun. I organize a meet-up group, Boulder County Small Breed. Our groups organizer gave up and let the meets falter, did not promote and let the group near expire. Not that that is bad, it takes effort to keep a heads up on that site. I took over and it only cost me...60 or 70 dollars for a six month period. I do my best to make all our meets, promote the group on Craigslist and post new messages every now and then. Oh, and I formulated the groups site to automatically write welcome announcements that I just add the new member's name and dog's name to and then remind them of the next meet. Come to think of it, it really isn't that time consuming and our group keeps growing and having successful meets. I don't know if this matters but I hate receiving zillions of emails so I rarely send out batch emails to the group. I have another thought that might help. I am in a hiking meet-up group, too, and they have a waiver form members have to fill out each year which is probably a good idea if you guys take hikes. I hope it works and I'll go check it out. Jennifer I'll put a link to my meet-up group in case you'd like to look at it for ideas... Here is a link that might be useful: This is my little group, for little dogs

The headcount of our group is up to 74 members. I hosted a killer meetup yesterday evening; the topic was starting transplants from seed and all the members got a chance to fill Jiffy strips with potting mix. We started 54 transplants or peppers, eggplants, and tomatillos for a community garden. Another session will be held next week for those members who couldn't attend due to holidays. We'll start 36 tomatoes then. And yes, we now have a community garden in Pearland! Starting bed construction next month. Cover crop was planted on the site by yours truly in October. Now I'm worried about volunteer training and database design. No, it doesn't end there. My partner in crime is organizing a farmers market in town which will start in March. So, for those of you who live nearby and would like to offer a few suggestions, I'm all ears.