Kelly's 2016 Apartment Patio Garden

[TexasTycoon]

I'll post some pictures here later so that this thread isn't in the wrong section, but I wanted to make myself a placeholder to list what seeds I've already started and what other plants I intend to grow this year. Our apartment lease is up in May, and we haven't decided if we'll renew or move yet, so I'm trying not to plan too many plants. (All of my plants are in pots, in case the title didn't make that clear)

I started some seeds this past weekend (1/23-1/24) because the weather was so gorgeous and I just had that itch. Who knows if anything will come from them, but I wanted to try anyway. ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

Outside, my Satsuma tree is still doing okay (it never bloomed last year so no fruit from it yet but maybe this year) and my jalapeno plant has a couple of blossoms, one or two peppers growing on it, and the foliage is looking a little shabby but the plant appears strong and bushy. On Saturday I planted some Miracle Gro seed pods I picked up on clearance last year - one is Genovese Basil and the other is Sage. I have no idea if anything will come of them, and I really don't care for the biodegradable pods that never seem to degrade in a pot, but we'll see what happens!

Inside, on a 72-cell Jiffy seed starter tray, I started some flower seeds on Sunday. I planted black hollyhock (Nigra) seeds in one half of the tray, and oriental poppy seeds in the other half. Both were from Ferry-Morse, and the hollyhock seeds were from their "Sow Easy" line so they were coated in this shimmery purple stuff to make them easier to sow. I did 3 hollyhock seeds to a cell and a pinch (yeah you try counting poppy seeds ) of poppy seeds per cell. The clear lid is on the tray and will remain so until I see sprouts, at which point I'll prop it open until everything is sprouted, then off with the lid and the tray will go sit by a window. I started flower seeds in the same tray last year with much success (two of the celosias I started are still alive and about 3 feet tall), but I started them in February so I hope I haven't jumped the gun. I wanted to try poppies since our neighboring city of Georgetown is famous for them (they have a poppy festival every year and all the front yards downtown are full of poppies, it's beautiful), and the hollyhock just caught my eye because I've never grown black flowers before.

This weekend, I'm going to finally get around to starting my Imperator #58 carrot seeds in a big deep pot. I meant to start them earlier this month but just kept forgetting. This will be my third time trying to grow carrots, so I hope the third time's the charm! The first try was in clay soil so we ended up with teeny weeny skinny squiggly carrots with beautiful lush greens, the second try was in an Earth Box-type container but they were overrun by fungus gnats. This time I know about Bt and always have a mosquito dunk in the watering can so gnats shouldn't be an issue.

In March or so, we'll head over to our favorite local nursery and pick out one or two tomato plants to transplant into big pots. Last year we grew a Tycoon plant (my usernamesake) and it did well with few issues, so we'll likely give Tycoon another go this year. I'll ask the owner of the nursery if he can recommend another tomato for our situation since he's very knowledgeable and friendly. We'll plant our pole bean seeds (I can't remember what variety I have) at this time as well, with wire or thin rope from the ceiling of the patio to act as a trellis for them. I think we'll try bell peppers (transplants) again this year, too, but I'm not 100% on it yet.

So, those are my plans so far and like I said I'll get some pictures up soon!