PARTNERS IN GRIME

So I got the balcony cleaned up with a little help form my youngest son. It was quite a mess and we both had fun getting dirty. I opened up a nice space where I plan to put a few boxes of leafy greens under which I will stash my worm box so it stays cool and shaded.

Speaking of worms, I checked in on them to see how they were doing and to make sure I didn't just totally bungle the whole project and kill them off, but they were wiggling around in there so I assume things are alright. Although, I am not sure if they have made it to the food so I introduced a few of them to the food pile and then covered them back up with some moist shredded news paper.

I also set up my EarthBox today with a row of Stinking Creek beans and a row of Purple Queen Beans. This was my first time setting up an EarthBox and the instructions were fairly clear and easy to follow but I did struggle a bit with the cover and making the holes for the plants to go in. As you can see, I butchered it pretty bad, but I have confidence that it will still serve its purpose. The instructions said 16 bush bean plants could be planted but for some reason that seems like quite a lot. I planted only 12 as that was all the seedlings that I had.

That's all for now.

Caution: Worms At Work

So, I picked up all the necessary componants to build our vermicompost box outlined in this article. Today I prepared all the boxes and drilled all the required holes. I located red worms at my local garden store and picked up 300 of the little guys. When my son got home from school he pitched in and helped with shredding and dampening the paper and then he did the honors of introducing the worms to their new home.

Meanwhile I divvied up some produce we had set aside for the guinea pigs and gave some to the worms, so we shall see how things go from here.

Wild Thing Guinea Pig Treat

I was walking to pick up my son from Kindergarten today and noticed that in the bushes on the side of the road that there was an abunance of dandelions which made me think that they would make great Guinea Pig food. Dandelions seem to be all the rage these days for humans that are into the wild thing. I have even seen them being sold in the grocery store produce section.

I got the thumbs up from my wife to make sure they are ok for our little furry friends and my son and I were off to picking free greens on the side of the road as we walked home. Once home, I gave them a good rinse under the tap to make sure any gross stuff was washed off and then dumped them into the pig pin.

It is nice to know that if I want to give a treat to the pigs every now and again, I don't have to go any further than my front door. I am not sure I am ready to do some wild harvesting for personal consumption, but hey, you never know in a pinch.

CHEAP & EASY WORM BIN

So, here is a link to some instructions on the worm composting bin I plan on making which should cost under $10. This should be relatively small and will not take up too much space on my balcony. There is also a little feeding and troubleshooting advice as well, so check it out.

GROW YOUR OWN... SCREW THE SYSTEM!

Last year was my first attempt at growing some veggies in containers on my balcony. I had fairly good success with a couple of cherry tomato plants, four zucchini plants and a few jalapeño plants and various herbs. However, I didn't do so well with bell peppers and Japanese eggplant but granted I think I started them too late and to be honest, I sort of lost interest and probably neglected them far too much.

So, this year, I am going to give it another shot. I am going to skip the tomatoes and the jalapeños since we didn't eat too many of them and ended up giving most of them to friends. I am going to broaden out the variety of what I grow and plan on trying to take over as much of my balcony as I can to growing food. Here is what is on the growing agenda:

• Parris Island (Romaine) Lettuce
  
• Black Seeded Simpson Lettuce
  
• Arugala (Rocket)
  
• Spinach (Bloomingdale, Long Standing)
  
• Radishes (Cherry Belle)
  
• Dill (Bouquet)
  
• Purple Queen Bush Beans (Phaseolus Vulgaris)
  
• Stinking Creek Bush Beans
  
• Zucchini
  

Plus, who knows, I may add a few more things as space permits and I am going to get a little creative with some bumper crops like chives, green onions and other herbs.

Also on the docket for this year is some other homesteading type projects. My oldest son and I are going to start a vermiculture bin system that should produce some nice worm castings (i.e worm poop) for our plants. I am also going to try and devise a rain water catch system to utilize what mother nature provides for free.

Also, I want to try and make my own self watering containers to grow out of. I currently have one Earthbox, but to be honest they are kind of expensive, so I will be exploring some other avenues. I made a self watering container out of storage bins last year that worked out pretty well, so we will get that one fired up again, but there is a plan for one made out of buckets in the book The Urban Homestead: Your Guide to Self-sufficient Living in the Heart of the City (Process Self-reliance Series)
by Kelly Coyne and Erik Knutzen.

Anyway, I will try and keep this blog updated frequently with the progress of my balcony experiments and will include pictures when I can and links to websites, articles, and resources as much as I possible.