City Growing

One of the reasons I went for this flat was the small terrace we have. It's west facing and catches the afternoon sun wonderfully. Well, me being me, I wanted to see whether it was even possible to grow food with just a small container garden, so I stole some flowerpots from my mum, bought some compost and seeds, and got planting. And here's where I am now.

1 seed tray with tiny leek seedlings on the left and sugarsnap peas on the right. Obviously with the leeks I'm not going to get massive broom-handle thick white stems, but I think it might be possible to harvest some slim pencil leeks at the end of summer.

Today I moved some of my larger pea plants to a hanging basket. I'm a bit worried because the basket is tiny, so it will dry out really fast if summer ever gets in gear and actually arrives (we've had week after week of much needed, but vaguely apocalyptic, rain). I'm also not sure if the plants will trail down over the sides, or climb up the chains.

Carrot seedings! These need thinning out, obviously. I'm going to try and transplant a few to a rectangular container too. Hopefully I'll end up with a fist-full of baby carrots, but who knows? I've never been able to grow carrots, so this would be a first.

Mixed salad leaves, ready to be harvested (which is a good thing because I'm out of food and cash this weekend). I'm looking forward to munching on this and seeing if my first city harvest is a success.


I don't know what's happening at the end of summer. Next year is my final year and I don't think I could write a dissertation living in a flat with a band. On the other hand, I don't really care about my degree grade, and I'm just starting to really like my flatmates and feel accepted by them, plus this place is really cheap and now I've got a garden going...


Not to mention my little garden helper: