Not only is gardening a productive pastime, as it can lead
to producing food that you may incorporate into your daily life, having plants
in your living space can lead to improved air quality (especially important for
apartments that may be sharing ducts-central air/heating) and improved
attitudes. There is also the potential to teach little ones about
responsibility surrounding a plant. Because plants are living things that need
food, water, sunlight (and lots of patience!) they are a perfect introduction
for kids to learn the responsibilities that may surround a future pet…say
hamster, reptile, or even dog. But I digress…
My introduction to apartment gardening began about a year
ago. Last year when I moved to my apartment I brought with me three, very
leafy, tomato plants and one very leafy basil plant. The basil plant thrived
even indoors (see in the center, there? Awesome!)
Thriving basil plant!
and eventually went to seed before I could use all of the delicious leaves, but the tomato plants had to be kept outside. My landlords are very particular about having a “presentable” exterior to their apartment complex and while I think that there would be nothing more presentable than a slew of pots and raised beds, they disagree. I was able to find an area outside that is hidden from the road but still receives about 4-5 hours of direct and indirect sunlight a day. Then my tomatoes died. They were scorched by one dry, hot weekend that I wasn’t able to water them.
This year I’m not trying my luck with tomatoes, instead I
thought I would try a native plant (wild bergamon) and a few different types of
peppers. One jalapeno, a lipstick (sweet non-bell), a Spanish mammoth (mild), and a
sweet bell pepper. My school’s Botany Club has a fundraiser to sell the started
plants, so that took out some of the guesswork and I was able to take and repot
my plants. Hopefully these guys will be a little more heat-tolerant, especially
since this summer is already keying up to be a warm one! While these will stay
outside in my hidden corner with the bike rack, there are a couple of plants I
keep inside on my small window sill.
My four pepper varieties and the native Wild Bergman
in the lower left corner
Last year I found a great window planter at Ace
that was only about $7.00, I had planted an Aloe variety plant and a few other
plants that I had bought (as another fundraiser) in this planter but by this
year only the Aloe was still alive. I scrapped the Aloe plant (sorry!) and
wanted to try something new. Queue tangent… On March 26th, 2011 my
boyfriend proposed. The ring came in a box made of seed-implanted paper, and
the invoice, information card, envelope, etc. were all made of the same
seed-implanted paper. I really want to try to incorporate the wildflowers that
will (hopefully) grow into my bouquet for the wedding next year, and I finally
got around to planting the paper. My hope is that in a month’s time, the little
wildflowers will start poking their sprouts out of the soil yearning for a
little more sunlight.
a Japanese Yew on the left and my planter with the seed-implanted paper
This seed-implanted paper is a whole new
experience for me so I will let you know how it goes! Do you do any apartment
gardening? If you do, what have you been able to successfully (or
unsuccessfully!) grow? I’d love to hear from you!
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