Porchside Gardening

Last Spring I was living in an apartment in New Jersey, where it remained fairly chilly until it should have been Summer. At no point last year did it get hot enough in North Jersey to send me scurrying into the closet to pull out shorts. I also did not have a porch of any sort, so any planting I wanted to do had to be done in the kitchen windowsill.

I made attempts at starting from seed, but the chilly weather thwarted my every attempt. When I bought starter plants, they barely grew. I can't say last year was a total bust for me plant wise, but it wasn't a blazing success either.

This year I find myself in a much warmer place and I have a porch, so I spent the weekend shopping for herbs. Yes, I didn't bother with the seeds this year as we get very little direct sunlight anyplace in the house. We have a South facing, first floor apartment, so our porch doesn't get much direct sunlight either. The very edges of the porch and the railings do though. So, while I was at the local organic farm and nursery, I picked up some window baskets made of iron and coconut skin to plant in. Here is the result of my shopping and hand dirtying:

On the one ledge we have baby Lavender and baby Sage, who get the box all to themselves since they can grow quite large.

On the other ledge, in an even longer box, we have baby Eucalyptus, Thyme, Genovese Basil, Chives, Parsley and a wee Marigold for some color.

I also wanted a hanging plant to offset the windowboxes, so I brought home a strawberry plant to pot:

If you closely at the left side, you can see there's already a baby strawberry growing. How exciting!

While my window boxes and hanging strawberry are a far cry from the herb, vegetable and lily garden I'd one day like to have, I love planting things. Getting my hands filthy and inhaling the rich scent of the Earth always has a way of unconsciously pulling all the negativity or stresses I may be suffering out of me. It grounds me and helps me feel more of a connection with nature and the world around me.

I'm also one of those people, you know the ones. You'll find me outside every so often whispering to the plants, urging them to grow. I promise I'm not crazy. ;)

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I wanted to take a moment to thank you all for your comments to my previous post. Compliments are always a wonderful thing! However, I think I may not have worded my question to you all thoroughly enough. What I meant to ask was, what is your favorite magical item... of your own! While I loved hearing which of my things you liked best, what I really wanted, was to learn about your personal tools. ;) Feel free to answer here, or post your own entry about it on your own blogs. If you do, let me know so I can take a peek!