Balcony Makeover - Herb Planters

Good Morning Kittens!

After a week of spending very long hours at work (being the very last person in the office three nights in a row took everything out of me), I'm back.  Miss me?

If I said that I purposefully waited to post about this, I'd be lying.  My list of things to post is ALWAYS quite long, and this one has been on my list since it was done on July 4th weekend, but it works out nicely that I'm sharing my balcony makeover a month late.  This way, I can include some before and after photos for you to be impressed with.  I'll take the awe you may have of my forethought if you'll give it, but really it's just dumb luck.

In the few months that my downstairs neighbor, Bridget, has been here, she's completely revamped her patio.  I would sit on my balcony and watch as she kept upgrading corner after corner of her large patio and I would then look around at my significantly smaller space and think, "Wow, this sucks!"  When I first moved in, I wanted to plant an herb garden and just never got around to it because my balcony is not too terribly wide and having a balcony stuffed to capacity with pots was something that I wanted to avoid at all costs.  Previously, I rented an old house with a yard that I completely overhauled.  My herb garden there was SPECTACULAR!!  Everything I planted grew like there was no tomorrow and while I don't have any photos to show you, you will just have to imagine the beauty that was my garden.  I was able to successfully grow the following:  basil (the two plants grew so large that they looked like a bush - they merged into one and grew so wide that I couldn't wrap my arms around them and so tall that they came up to my waist), oregano, parsley, thyme, sage, rosemary, mint, five different types of tomatoes, yellow bell peppers, orange bell peppers, and jalapenos.  Sadly, the only thing I couldn't grow was cilantro.  I must have tried 4 different times and each time the plant died a pretty spectacular death.

So, needless to say, I was constantly comparing what I had been able to do with that space to what I was going to able to do here and the stark contrast saddened me.  I cuddled with the fact that I was going to have to downsize from my last garden, put on my big girl panties, and decided to finally just get to it!  So, I headed to Home Depot and started throwing things into my cart.

Once I lugged everything back up to my balcony, the fun started.

I discovered some pretty fabulous planters that were designed to sit atop balcony railings which resolved the problem of taking up precious floor space and after about an hour, I had my herbs planted and my planters securely placed.

BEFORE

AFTER

Dill and Parsley

Oregano and Basil

Since this was a makeover of sorts (there is really only so much you can do with a balcony), I also took a Swiffer to the floor to make everything all nice and pretty.  Yes, my neighbors thought I was out of my mind.

And now, only a month later, these plants are pretty impressive, if I do say so myself.

While it's growing, I still have to figure out the right amount of water for my dill, it's slightly yellowish in areas... Poor little dill.

The oregano is doing so well that it's already trying to escape the planter and we're only one month in.  This could be a problem...

Evidently I'm not the only one who is excited about my basil...

While I'm not totally happy with the terracotta color of the planters, I think I'm going to pick up a few more and spruce them up a bit.  And I have a good amount of the organic soil left which I really shouldn't waste.  Although I'm not getting up on Saturday mornings, putting on my gardening hat, and spending a few hours in my garden like I used to, I think I've been bitten by the gardening bug again!  Seeing how things have grown just makes me happy - it's the little things.  

And now that I've got such beautiful herbs growing, I"m super excited to really start using them!  I've used a few basil leaves already and I'm really looking forward to being able to use more in beautiful, healthy dishes!  Herbs are used in so many clean dishes, so I think more cooking and clean eating is in my future!  And I find that very exciting!!

Am I the only one who gets excited about gardening?  I hope not.  If you haven't gotten into it yet, I highly suggest it.  You really don't know what you're missing!

Time to water my little friends!  Have a fabulous Saturday!

XOXO