Spring is in the air!
Mar. 13th, 2007 06:46 pmIt's just lovely out today in Chicago. It got up to 73 degrees (or there abouts), and I wore a tank top home from work. Josh packed us a picnic dinner, I changed into a skirt, and we went to the park to eat.
When we got home, I went out on the balcony and planted sweet peas. We're still expecting at least one more frost this year, but my mom says the peas wont care. Hopefully they will do better this year than last... I got two varieties, so I'm thinking that will improve my odds. So anyhow, my garden is officially started for this year!
But I still have to (well, want to) bite the bullet and fork over some cash (I'm thinking $50+) to get the rest of the supplies I want for this year. Normally that wouldn't be much money to me... but now that it's becoming clear that Josh isn't going to get a job within 1-2 months of finishing his masters degree like we'd hoped, we're wanting to tighten our belts and cut at least $200/month out of the budget. But that's no fun to think about, and I think we're going to take it out of something other than the garden category, so back to what I want to do...
I've determined that virtually everything I want to plant is going to do better hung on the railing than below... so that I can let them grow down the balcony rails rather than trying to get them to climb up. Also, this means that hopefully we will have more usable space on the balcony and will still be able to have dinner out there even with all the plants and whatnot. So I want 6 more attachments for hanging long planters, and one more planter of the short variety, so I can make maximal use of the balcony... running 8 hanging boxes (6 long and 2 short) all the way across, and then one long one hanging on the inside of the balcony at each end. And then I want to buy and install 14 feet of gutter to hang below the boxes to catch all the drips and carry them away so I can be a good neighbor and not drip on the flowers of the woman who lives down stairs. Plus, I need a few more seeds. Also, if anyone knows where I can get a ceramic (or is that terracotta?) strawberry pot on the cheap, please do let me know...
When we got home, I went out on the balcony and planted sweet peas. We're still expecting at least one more frost this year, but my mom says the peas wont care. Hopefully they will do better this year than last... I got two varieties, so I'm thinking that will improve my odds. So anyhow, my garden is officially started for this year!
But I still have to (well, want to) bite the bullet and fork over some cash (I'm thinking $50+) to get the rest of the supplies I want for this year. Normally that wouldn't be much money to me... but now that it's becoming clear that Josh isn't going to get a job within 1-2 months of finishing his masters degree like we'd hoped, we're wanting to tighten our belts and cut at least $200/month out of the budget. But that's no fun to think about, and I think we're going to take it out of something other than the garden category, so back to what I want to do...
I've determined that virtually everything I want to plant is going to do better hung on the railing than below... so that I can let them grow down the balcony rails rather than trying to get them to climb up. Also, this means that hopefully we will have more usable space on the balcony and will still be able to have dinner out there even with all the plants and whatnot. So I want 6 more attachments for hanging long planters, and one more planter of the short variety, so I can make maximal use of the balcony... running 8 hanging boxes (6 long and 2 short) all the way across, and then one long one hanging on the inside of the balcony at each end. And then I want to buy and install 14 feet of gutter to hang below the boxes to catch all the drips and carry them away so I can be a good neighbor and not drip on the flowers of the woman who lives down stairs. Plus, I need a few more seeds. Also, if anyone knows where I can get a ceramic (or is that terracotta?) strawberry pot on the cheap, please do let me know...