In the recent lockdown, I picked up a new hobby at my balcony with so limited space -balcony pot gardening!
It started with my husband's aunt who asked us to take some mint soup to strengthen our immunity and I did not have mint at home. So I bought some from the stores and started planting the stalks after I cooked the leaves.
After that, I realized some of my onions and shallots have sprouted before I could use them. Thus, I planted them into some soil since they had already shown their young shoots.
Next, I explored some sweet basil and rosemary. Also because they were part of my cooking ingredients and I thought to myself, "Why not plant them?"
So basically I plant them from their leftovers, nothing from seeds yet at that time. I was just trying out and treating them like experiments hahaha.
Of course there were failed experiments too like my Bok Choy which did not grow from its stalk and was consumed by ants instead.
However, I did not give up and I tried another round on celery stalk and it grew too though slowly. Recently, I looked at my pots that have assorted herbs and plants in them. It took me months to move to just organize. Thus I decided it is time to repot and get new soil as well as pots. Since I am doing that, maybe I can try out growing some plants from seeds too.
Getting into some new groove
My new babies in my collection now are cherry tomatoes, assorted colours bell peppers, dwarf bok choy, spring onion and celery which are all grown from seeds, as my newest experiments. I am trying out seedling soil and also seedling tray to nurture them carefully at the beginning stage. After 4 days, I am finally seeing some shoots and sprouts.
Not forgetting another round of harvest of my sweet basil for cooking today! With their leftover stalks, I have started my second pot of sweet basil! What gardening joy! 😄
My grandparents are great gardeners who planted vegetables and fruits for sales. My dad too has green fingers and he now does gardening in the house yard for his hobby. I do not have a piece of land to work on so I start with my pots and soil at the balcony.