I know some of you actually are interested in how my balcony container garden is doing… so here’s an update & some pics. (Click on the pictures to make them bigger.)

This is my second radish planting. The first crop did pretty well. I think it was still a bit too cool when I moved them outside. I read that if they don’t have enough water or heat they get really spicy. Good thing Chris likes spicy radishes! He ate them all though, so we expanded with this planting, to the hanging planter, too, which first had a green bean in it, that broke & died, and then flowers that never took. The radishes are doing well though.

I have 5 green bean plants. Here you can see 4, with 2 of them back to back. I have my first flowers on these, even since I took the picture! They’re on the pallet because, even though you can’t really tell, the pallet is at an angle so the ones in the back can get a good amount of sunlight without being shaded.

This is the end of my spinach. I was so happy it did much better this year than last. It’s just starting to bolt, since it’s much warmer now. I plan to put in a second crop in September or so. I wish I had planted more of this, but we’re getting enough for a small salad for one of us about every other day.

My tomatoes are coming along as well. I had thought I was going to lose them because they ended up having some strange colored leaves on them, looking dried out and dying. I was told it was probably some kind of disease, as tomatoes get diseases easily. I thought to pull them up, but decided to wait and see what happened. I’m so glad I did. They’re rebounding nicely. I actually wonder if it was a bit cool on some of those nights for them as well. They’re just starting to get some flowers on them, though they’re not open yet. These are a kind of Roma tomato, I believe. They should still get another foot or so taller, but all 3 plants are doing well.

Then there’s my little grape tomato plant. I had planted a few of them in this window box, and have narrowed it down to this one and 2 smaller ones on either side. (You can see one to the right.) Those may come up as well. Not sure yet. But the big one has a few yellow flowers opening up and I’m so excited! This plant might get a little bigger… they say 1-2 feet tall.

And then there are my cucumbers. I did a little experiment. I grew 3 plants (in 2 pots) mostly outside and one plant inside. This is one of the outside ones. You can see the other pot with the 2 in the back. They just now are getting some tiny, tiny cucumber buds on them and have just put out it’s first runner. It’s so cute! They’re slow, but they’re coming along. I’m sure the not hot weather here doesn’t help anything.

And then there is my indoor plant (which, incidentally was moved outside today). This thing got to be about 4 foot high and we determined it HAD to go out. The top was starting to not get enough light anyway. Plus, I was hand pollinating all the flowers. So, it’s now outside on the balcony, climbing across the railing. It has a number of flowers and I hope that the hand pollination worked! It’s also amazing to me that it grew this tall so fast. 21 days ago it looked like this:

So, that’s it! I’m really happy with my garden & the decision to do it. It’s been fun and rewarding as it’s been a very dry spring here and there are rumors of even higher veggie prices come this fall because of it. Yea for my little garden!

Chris and I went to Riga yesterday for the day… all day. The main reason we went was to hear Benny Prasad play. What a treat that was. His testimony of God’s amazing faithfulness and blessing was so encouraging. And then there was the music. He’s created his own guitar, which sounds so cool, especially when he plays Indian style music with it. Benny is with YWAM as well, and many of us went out for pizza after the concert. He was so real and funny. It was a great time.

Of course, we also got to see a number of our friends who live in Riga… Elita, Diaga, Dace, KC, Elise, Cheryl… and more. We also got to touch base with an outreach that is here that Andis has been translating for the last 7 weeks. I can’t wait to catch up with him and hear about all the things the God has been doing in his life.

We stayed at Cheryl’s place last night and has some good conversation with her last night and this morning before out bus left to come home. We were only gone for about 30 hours, but it felt like 3 days. In the midst of our time there we had some really intense discussion with some of our friends about their faith and decisions they’re making.

When we got home our dear kitty, Saulite, went nuts. I think she was lonely without us! She’s finally calming down now.

My garden is doing well. I did have to bring all my tomatoes and cucumbers in the house for the night as we’re supposed to have frost tonight. Odd, since it was so warm and beautiful yesterday. I have one cucumber plant that I’ve been growing in the house which has taken off and I’m so excited about it. I think it’s the best plant I have of all of them!

Don’t worry, I don’t intend on turning this into a gardening blog, but it’s just so exciting to me right now. It’s amazing to me how a little seed, under the right conditions, can become a huge plant and bring forth so much food!

I’ve transplanted my radishes and green beans, and some of my cucumbers. In 2 days on of the beans has totally come out and even has leaves… so quickly and so big. I’m just amazed. So, there’s some pics here if you’re curious to see my gardening progress. Yes, I know, I’m quite a green thumb nerd.

Yes, it’s gardening time again. I figured since I should be in country this summer (or at least for the majority of it… you never know what could happen), I’d try it again this year.

I container garden, since I live in an apartment and have no yard. :) I got my tomatoes started a while ago, but “thanks” to Chris’ cat, I had to start them over. Yes, Chris’ cat. MY cat would never eat my tomato sprouts, so she is now Chris’ cat whenever we talk about the tomato incident.

So, I started again. I also found a site that showed how you can start your bean-type seeds in a ziplock bag in the window. So, I now have 3 bags of seeds, 1 each for green beans, radishes and cucumbers. I realize that the cucumbers probably won’t work like this, but I tried the “normal” way and that didn’t work for me either, so, I thought I’d try it anyhow. Chris says I have to wait a full 3 days before I can open the bags and look at them, which is in about 5 hours. :) Yes, I’m a little excited. Just ask my friend, Sher, whom I gardening “with” via the internet.

I also tried to start my tomatoes again, but I had to figure out a way to keep my, I mean, Chris’ cat out of my plants. I read about how you can use a 2L pop bottle as a sort of “green house” for your seedlings. So, I had Chris cut 3 bottles apart for me. It worked. Not only did the cat stay out of them, but they sprouted and are growing nicely in their little homes. We were also given some “cat grass” to grow… not quite catnip, but more for their digestive system, I suppose. That’s growing there, too. Hopefully this will be a deterrent for the cat as well.

In anticipation of my radishes sprouting today, I dug out one of the flower boxes I’m going to plant them in, found my potting soil outside and filled it up to warm it in the house. It’s still about 45″ outside, so these will be living in my living room on the window sill, if I can keep Chris’ cat out of them. Grr.

So, all in all, I plan to grow tomatoes (which I have done, successfully in the past on my balcony), green beans, radishes & cucumbers. Hopefully we’ll have a nice harvest over the next number of months.