Balcony Container Garden Implementation

Egg Carton Seedlings

I have already started my seedlings, although it is still early November, in the hopes that the balcony will stay warm enough through the winter. One technique I have used to sow basil and aniseed is with used egg cartons.

Next, I punch some holes for drainage

...and fill with potting soil (store-bought organic compost).

Within a week the basil sprouted, but the aniseed didn't germinate. Or at least that was what I had thought. Upon closer inspection the other day, I found two dried seedlings in the desiccated soil. They seem to take longer to sprout than the basil and next time I'll be more patient and keep watering them.

Moringa

Here is a moringa that I'm quite excited about. I brought three seeds with me from Thailand and now one of them has sprouted. It grows quite fast too!

These pictures were taken within just a few days of each other. Notice the growth between the first and second sets of leaves.

From another angle

Winged Bean

This little one was also brought from Thailand. It can be eaten raw as well.

Instead of trellising this bean, I decided to hang it on a hook in the bag that the potting mix came in. The idea is that it will hang down from the sides.

Potato/Worm Bin

This idea came to me one night just before I drifted off to sleep. Why not grow potatoes in a worm bin? As the potato leaves grow I can regularly layer in my kitchen waste (mostly coffee grounds and eggshells at the moment) for the worms and at the same time encouraging more spud production. At the end of the season the system ought to yield potatoes, worms and compost.

So I found an old plastic pot somebody threw out on the street. I lined the bottom of the pot with some cardboard, filled it in with some dried soil left over in an abandoned pot and added the seed potatoes I bought from an organic store. I chose those potatoes that were already sprouting.

!

In go the potatoes

Then some old coffee grounds and eggshells I had been collecting for this purpose.

Then in go the worms. I found a seller close to where I live and I got about fifty mature Eisenia Foetida from him, not to mention a whole lot of baby worms and cocoons. Here is one of them that I dug up.

Fast-forward about three weeks later, the worms still seem to be doing fine and the potatoes have produced a couple of shoots.