So envious! Beautiful and not bending, ultimate gardening.
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Those are gorgeous earth boxes! I’m jealous too. I would love to transform my garden space to something like that.
On the somewhat good news front - the change over to a few more days of sun vs. cloud and rains seems to have finally made my seeds start to grow! I’m getting little baby, baby seedlings on my shishito pepper plants! I guess it was really just the miserable 3 months of constant rain that was the cause. There is hope yet that I could still get a harvest this year.
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Very neat to hide the earth box with the deck. Now you need some strong guys if you need to take that out, or can it be opened in the front?
The plastic sheets on the tomato pots are to keep the heat?
What are the strings for?
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Beautiful!
"… empty pots waiting for inspiration. "
How about a variety of bush beans? I have researched some green, yellow, and purple varieties if you decide to go that way.
Huh. A basic yellow or green bush bean might be just the way to go. Thanks, shrinkrap!
Glad to share my crazies!
I was so surprised by how well they did last year, this year I plan to try starting a second batch, maybe in two weeks, and in September.
I’m trying these from Renee’s Garden
And maybe
Royalty Purple
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Gorgeous! We’ll see how they fare in this New England weather. Thanks so much for the recommendations, and the research!
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Thanks, naf. The strings are to support the larger plants, and the black plastic covers the entire top of the box to keep moisture and heat in and to prevent weeds from growing. There is a tube that goes down to the bottom of the box, and we fill it up daily. The water wicks up from the bottom. They are quite low-maintenance. Fertilizer and minerals are added at the beginning of the season so watering is pretty much all we have to do.
The picture makes it look like the shrubs are right behind the boxes, but actually the back of the platform is open so we can take the boxes out from behind if necessary. Those shrubs are actually on my neighbor’s property.
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I hope you will share your results. Believe it or not, I’ve always thought it was too hot to grow green beans here in the summer.
Well, the fennel is out of control and no longer usable. So I cut a stalk down and made a nice “flower” arrangement. In the background, the is one more artichoke ready.
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Pretty! Can you use the pollen?
Here are a few updates from my garden. It’s getting really hot. Might be 105 this week.
Feher Ozon peppers
New Big Dwarf Tomato
NectarZee Nectarine
Dwarf Tomatoes
Rocotto pepper blossoms
Principe Borghese Tomato
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Just wondering at the peak of summer, does your vegetables in your garden enough to feed your family?
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Beautiful the fennel flowers! Sorry that they are not edible anymore.
Two months after I got everyone outside full-time, things are progressing apace.
I’ve been harvesting lots of lacinato kale…
and little gem lettuce and various herbs…
I’ve also got some tiny cukes…
and some medium-size bloody butcher tomatoes.
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It is just two of us, and it SHOULD be, but husband prefers broccoli and carrots, 
which I don’t grow. We also subscribe to a community supported agriculture box, and I like farmers markets, so…let’s just say I make a lot of compost!
Very nice! Where do you garden? What is the climate like?
That garden is on the balcony of my fifth floor apartment in Manhattan (aka zone 7b). It gets full sun in the morning and often a fair amount of wind, which killed my first basil planting.
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That is pretty impressive! Do you mind saying what part of Manhattan? I am originally from the “outer boroughs”.
I’m on the Lower East Side - you can see the Williamsburg Bridge in the first picture. If you lived in the vicinity of 420 Kent Avenue, I can wave to your old house.
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Nice! I THOUGHT I saw a bridge. I did not think much gardening was going on there. My daughter grew up in N. Call, and now lives in Queens, and often asks what she might grow on a balcony.
I looked up 420 Kent Avenue, and no. Not even close.
Although I have lived in Brooklyn and the Bronx as well, l spent my “formative” years in Queens. My cousins from the Bronx and Brooklyn thought it was " the country", and my parents did do their share of gardening. Of course, we thought it was our relatives that had made it as far as Hempstead REALLY lived in the country!
