Planning a balcony garden

The nice thing about living in San Diego is that it’s never too late to start a garden. It’s just a matter of what to plant and when to plant it. Oh, and where. Kind of like the five w’s we learned in journalism class [who, what, where, when and um, how -- I know, not a w, but...whatever. Hey, there's a w for you.]

I want to start planting something on my balcony soon, though. Something edible. But what? The last time I tried it was a joke, partly because I didn’t know how to properly care for the poor plants, and partly because I planted things I had no interest in actually eating. Like cucumbers. And jalapeno peppers. Not that I don’t like them — I just don’t go out of my way to eat them. So I thought I’d better make a list of fruits and vegetables that I actually eat and then figure out which ones would be good candidates for my balcony garden [obviously, some of these, like apples, oranges and avocadoes, wouldn't work]:

Wow. I didn’t realize how healthy my diet has become in the past few years. This is a HUGE change from the way I used to eat pre-Nicole, my dear friend in Guatay who taught me how to cook and eat healthy food. It’s simple, really, but like a lot of Americans these days, I grew up on fast and convenience food. I was terrified of fresh produce. Now I’m excited when I discover something new — like my latest passion, fennel [yum].

So yes, fennel will have to be among the first things I plant, but I want to be careful not to be too ambitious because I tend to fizzle out when the work gets too hard and my back starts hurting. Herbs and salad greens sound good. Maybe I should leave it at that for now.

I do need to consider the peculiarities of the location. My west-facing balcony is 5 x 15 feet, large enough for lots of plants, but I need to leave room for hanging laundry and storing garden stuff. And I need a way to hide all that from public view, because we’re not supposed to be hanging laundry and storing stuff on the balcony. As long as it’s hidden, the manager doesn’t say anything. Also, the sun turns the space into a solar oven in summer, good for the actual solar oven I’d like to build but not so good for comfortable living inside with a minimum of air conditioning. So I’ve hung blinds for privacy and to create a cool space between the blazing sun and the apartment wall. They work pretty well, but hello — plants need sunlight!

An herb/salad garden would probably do pretty well in the shady environment, but I got this insanely ambitious idea today — a vertical garden! Grow vines up the railings and hang baskets or string for the vines from the ceiling — a living, green replacement for the blinds that would shade the balcony and apartment while at the same time feeding us!

I must be crazy — I can’t do something that grandiose with my bad back, low energy and lack of gardening experience. But wouldn’t it be cool?