ice plant, peppermint, strawberries, sugar snap peas and lettuce
I started some small planters on the balcony off the dining room today. I have a condominium in West Los Angeles, no yard, no land – just the balconies. I have a few goals with this project: 1) Reduce the amount of food I need form the grocery store, 2) Teach my son about growing our own food 3) Recycle materials that would otherwise go to the trash or in the recycling bin for transport and 4) Maybe use some greywater for the plants and reuse water in a condominium/apartment situation.
This is a really great option for anyone who lives in a similar situation and has one or more of these goals I outline above. An interesting point is that most people live in this type of situation.
From the Holiday season, we had plenty of cardboard from gifts we received. I did not want to throw it all away. So we cut it up into flat panels. My plan here is to line the bottom of the small planters with the cardboard. This will serve as a base for the planters, something to absorb water and hold it for the plants and I get to recycled a decent amount of cardboard.
food planters on our balcony
The ‘small planters’ are really very inexpensive plastic bins. I had one leftover from holiday wrapping paper that we used up and purchased two more. We went to our local gardening store and got a lot of edible plants. On the list are: Two kinds of strawberries (Quinalt’ Everbearing and Junebearing), three kinds of lettuce (Lettuce Pablo, Swiss Chard, Great Lakes), Sugar Snap Peas, Peppermint, and Rosemary. We also got an nice little Ice plant and Speedwell ground cover. It will be great to able to pick the lettuce, make salad and eat it right there. This would be ‘living’ food and is much better than anything else. My son will be able to learn so much from this and appreciate the value in growing our own food.
Its going to be very exciting growing our own food. I’ve only just begun. We have a lot more room for more plants and vegetables. Next steps are to actually connect the sink drain to the planters, make the planters bigger – and getting the permission from the Board of Directors for the condo complex and the city. Will keep this blog posted on our progress.
One goal is to grow ALL of our vegetables here, at home in our condo. Can we do it? I know one way to find out! 
strawberries
Prompt, where to me to learn more about it?
Bravo, brilliant idea and is duly