Memphis Apartments

Let’s say you grew up on a farm and one of the best memories you have is enjoying food out of the garden every day. However, now that you live in a city in a Memphis apartment building, that beauty of the garden is lost and you miss the good old days of garden grown vegetables in your salad. This can be a hard thing to bear, especially if you are forced to eat herbicide laced vegetables from the grocery store, so what can you do?

Well, there is the ability to have a garden, a small garden, along your balcony or out your window in window box style.

First of all, you need to decide what you want to grow in that window box, it can be flowers, herbs or vegetables. Since we already mentioned the beauty of homegrown vegetables, we will focus on those instead.

First of all, choose plants that are going to fit the environment of the city, Memphis apartment and location of your balcony the best. If you face to the north, try and find vegetables that will not need as much southern light, while if you face south, you should be fine with any vegetable you choose. Also be aware of temperature and humidity levels.

Next, you will have to make measurements and buy the right sized, or right number of window boxes to take up the balcony railing. You have several types to choose from, but usually plastic or wooden-boxes will be the best as they are very durable and resistant to rot, if you get wooden boxes that have been treated to be so.

Make sure the box has drain holes and make sure those drain holes are not going to somehow drain on the balcony below you. Once you have double-checked, take a look at the putting the soil in. Soil can be found anywhere and you should always buy more than you are going to use, you never know what will happen. One thing to consider is the use of something other than straight soil. Straight soil is too dense to be used in window boxes, so you may need to mix it with some other type of soil. If you don’t know what to mix it with, then just ask someone at the garden center and they will be more than happy to help you.

When you put the seeds in, make sure the soil is moist, this will help the initial growing process. Make sure that you carefully read the directions on the seed package so the seeds grow to their full potential. This is important because not all types of vegetables need water every day and therefore you do not want to over water and kill the vegetables in your balcony garden.

The best vegetables to grow in your balcony garden are without a doubt tomatoes, they are easy to grow, they don’t grow too high and they are easy to tell when they are ripe. Things like lettuce, carrots and other vegetables may not have enough room to grow properly in a small box.

When the winter months come along, take dead foliage and leave it on the soil to insulate it and count the days until spring arrives and you can once again start growing your vegetable garden.

Just because you live in a Memphis apartment, it does not mean you have to deal with not having a garden. Window boxes, soil and seeds do not cost that much so it is easy to get started and if you fail the first time, well there is always next year.

Happy Gardening!

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