>Not for nothing, but have you tried Home Depot or Lowes? Many of them still sell plants supplied by local growers, especially when it comes to vegetable plants. Really? I'm in the Stuart area and I've never seen anything but Bonnie for veg the big box stores here.

Along my garage wall and my neighbors is almost the only space i have to grow things. I learned from last year that overcrowding got me horrible yield. I think i has more plants than fruits harvested. I will try some radish and see what i can get. They store pretty well even if i have a lot of them. For next year i want a raised bed in those spots. My plan is around the end of spring to build the frame for the beds. Dump a mix of kitchen scraps, shredded brown paper, leaves, and coffee grounds covered with cardboard and rocks to keep it down. Hopefully by next spring it should have composted. I have had good results with Scotts topsoil mix which i can add a few bags to them. Mix it all up and have a better growing medium.

Hey KEN, thanks for your insights. Those R4 steel shelves are 41" high and about 36" wide, weight 36 lbs., so it seems very stable. They are about the same height as the top of the railing. I also intend to velcro-strap the uprights of the shelving units to the railing, so it won't be going anywhere. The fabric grow pots I chose have handles on each side. I'm thinking I could bungee cord through the handles and around the wires forming the shelf to anchor the top shelf's plants. There is like 15" between the middle shelf and the top shelf, leaving ample room to get in there to water, remove bad leaves, etc. And there is 17" between the bottom and middle shelves, leaving plenty of room between the middle shelf and the top of the bottom shelf's plants. I spoke with the leasing manager today, to confirm my calculations about the actual working space within the balcony railings, which turns out to be about 6'. I'll have to put one shelving unit on the eastern narrow end and and one in the corner of the front railing. While speaking to the leasing manager, I found out that we are allowed to hang plants from the railing as well. So cool! So that's where I can add in some annuals for a bit of color pop. She also confirmed that lots of people grow lots of different kinds of plants on the balconies, and that my apartment is located on the side which gets more sun on the balconies. I will box up all the hostas & heuchies the day before I move and head out the the Greyhound station on Long Island. They have a Greyhound Express package service which is actually very reasonable. I can ship the boxes of plants and have them delivered to my door in about 3 days. Perfect!

Miracle Gro is a perfectly adequate fertilizer and should work well. No need to change it up midseason...it works from planting through to harvest. 5G is a pretty small container for an indeterminate like German Striped. I'd recommend a 15-20G container. If you leave it in that size, you will be watering a lot more frequently and therefore need to fertilize a lot more frequently. Half strength at least weekly or with every other watering.