Fingers crossed for a good harvest this year
Growing on 2nd floor apt balcony in zone 7a. Jalapenos, bell peppers, roma tomatoes, mint, lemon grass, flowers, and random greens started from seed poorly (I still struggle with seed starting lol)
1st photo is around 1pm, 2nd photo is around 9am, close ups are around 7pm. Taken on span of 2 days after I observed the sun movement and moved around the pots.
We've stayed here for a couple of years and each growing season has been different. We get a decent amount of sun throughout the day but the weather here can be quite bipolar. A lot of challenges growing in containers with limited space but I'm very optimistic this year since I have switched to mostly grow bags which will help with the space and watering issues we've had in the past. I even have a mini green house and bought strong seedlings locally to combat the temp swings and short growing season. We are moving out of this apartment next year however, so I do feel a little sad now that I feel like I've "cracked" the code.
Some challenges over the years:
- budget - we were broke college students when we moved in so I was being extra stingy with supplies. Eg. getting properly sized pots or pots with good drainage. Things are better now that we're married (yay!) and a DINK (yay! x2)
- growing space & roof - the balcony is decently spacious and the roof provided shade for the plants during hot days but there is only limited amount of usable space the corner and my plants lose time in the sun (around 10a-12p). This improved once we got a little extra cash to get better set ups and try to grow vertically.
- watering & drainage - there's a downstair neighbor so we want to be extra careful with watering while dealing with budget constraints during early years. This was such an issue that at one point that I didn't drill proper drainage in some of my pots.
- nature - self-explanatory things that every growers go through. Some seasons were rough (cold for too long/short growing season, smog from wildfires, spotted lantern fly infestations, extra dry & hot summer to name a few)