I stopped by the local hardware store and picked up the following items:

• 1 x cubic foot gardening soil (not potting)
• 4 x new small planters (with bases), to bring my total to 12
• 2 x 75W Philips Plant Light Bulbs
• 2 x portable light fixtures with built-in clamp
• 2 x 5 gallon bucket with lids
• 2 x can of matte black spray paint

Upon getting home, I took the black spray paint and coated one of the lid/bucket pairs, and let it dry.  I then took enough of the old dirt (from last year), which is still a good base, and filled the bucket 3/4ths of the way up.  I took the new gardening soil (which is very rich in nutrients), and filled the bucket up the rest of the way, added some water, and mixed thoroughly by sealing the bucket, and shaking vigorously.  This gave me a wonderful custom made seed mix for only $6 including the bucket.  I also managed to pick up a two shelf wheeled cart for free from a nice lady across the way who was moving out and knew I gardened.  I now use it to hold gardening supplies (including beer and tasty frozen drinks from local convenience stores).

Now, I bet you are asking, why the hell did he paint the bucket black? Well, I plan on using this and the other bucket for the purpose of plant compost.  Black absorbs more heat of the sun and will heat the inside of the bucket better.  Hopefully, producing better compost.  I have lots of dead plant matter from last year (and every year from my other plants I perennial plants I have).  If you are interested in the composting, I still am as well and  I will be doing an article on it when I manage to accomplish setting up some compost of my own.

OK, I then took the soil and put it into my 12 small seed starting planters that I used last year.  Mounted the lights above my bar, and organized them in a way to assist in ensuring the best equal amount of light I can offer indoors.

I will let the soil set for at least 24 hours and water 3 times within that span to ensure proper soil compaction, moisture distribution, and particle spacing to prevent the soil from settling while the seeds are in the pots.  I am also running the lights on a 12 on 12 off cycle. Example: 9 a.m. to 9 p.m. or 6 a.m. to 6 p.m.  I know, it’s just dirt, but the goal here is to simulate a perfect outdoors environment indoors, so, I’m gonna roll with it for now (perhaps a controlled experiment at a later date to determine it’s usefulness is in order).

I learned a lot about what not to do, what to do, what I plan to do, and how I am changing my tactics this year for better success.  So, join me (again) why don’t you, in analyzing how I am going about things this year… and unfortunately, what went wrong last year.

Also, I have upped the look of the site a bit, including an image of a one-leg-missing-leaf-bug I took on my balcony a few days ago which was my inspiration for starting this up again.  Thanks, random insect.

I decided to setup a small garden on my balcony. Are you surprised?  Anyways, I’m gonna give you a little insight into what has occurred on day one.

Just a quick note, although the blog is about gardening on the balcony, The current temperatures are too low to allow for germination, so all of the plants are getting started inside.  We will move outside when appropriate.

After a trip to the local Home Depot, I had purchased the following things:

• Eight plastic pots and base pans
• One bag of “Miracle-Gro Seed Starting” Soil
• Enough seeds to recover from a nuclear holocaust
• One 3-Lamp Halogen Light

All together at Home Depot, I spent less than $60.00 to get all of the stuff to get this min indoor garden started.

After returning from the Home Depot, we put the soil into the pots evenly, 1 quart per pot.  This worked out flawlessly as the bag was 8 quarts and we had 8 1 quart pots.  That gave us:

As you can see we decided to label each pot with some leftover plastic knives we had laying around.  I also decided to attach the labels that came with the original seed packaging to the back of the knives.  This helps us keep up with the needs and expected germination time of each plant and other needs.

In order to assist in growth, as the bar that the plants are on are located in a rather remote location away from sunlight, extended sunlight hours, and also an effort to achieve the high soil temperatures required, I mounted the lamp directly over the plants about the bar.

The halogen lamp is sure to provide as much of a full spectrum as possible that is needed by the plants for growth.  The light emitted also assists in heating the soil from room temp of 70 degrees to over 75 degrees.  I used halogen as it was the widest spectrum light available at the home depot.  If you feel hardcore into it, you could use a full spectrum florescent bulb from a fish tank lamp.

We proceeded to plant all of the seeds from each package into a pot at the depth prescribed on the packaging.  No need for a picture here, mainly because I didn’t want to touch my camera with “dirt”-y fingers.

So, after a few hours of work we ended up with 8 pots with dirt and seeds.  Joy.

We planted the following seeds:

• Thyme
• Cilantro
• Tomato
• Catnip
• Peppers
• Rosemary
• Mint
• Parsley

We watered and are now waiting to see what happens.

Wish us luck.