I’ve arrived safe and sound in Los Angeles. Now I have lots to do to get my balcony garden set-up.
It’s a much bigger space than the fire escape garden that I had in New York. I’m working with a 13×4 space, plus some areas for possible hanging planters. Not sure if I’ll be able to use the soda bottles though.
I’m going to find out where I can get 5-gallon containers so that I can make the self-watering containers. I brought all of the copper pipe for the containers with me.
I’ll likely hit up the farmers markets and some restaurants for the containers. After the trouble that I had breaking them down in the winter, I’m likely going to change the design of them a bit this time around.
Also going to need to find a place where I can get some organic soil and compost. For the soil, I might just buy the ingredients to make my own. To start out, I’ll need to find a place to buy some organic compost until I can get set up in making my own again.
I knew that it was time to start my seeds in New York City. Since I’m in a totally new climate I need to figure out what to start when all over again and collect the materials to start the seeds as well.
After finally getting comfortable with the resources that I had available to me in NYC for containers, compost, plants, soil, etc, I need to seek all of that out again. Should be a good way for me to familiarize myself with the community and area.
So I should probably stop writing this and get started on my garden.
Here’s to new beginnings!
httpv://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8sM5VPul7Ck
Awesome! Congrats on moving to a warmer climate, too! Your garden is going to thrive!!
Lots of love to you!
Wendi
XOXOXO
Wow! Congrats on your move and this new beginning — looking forward to more!
Congrats on the successful move. Great to have you back.
For the buckets, try almost any place that bakes or fries something. Grocery store bakeries are popular sources among the preparedness crowd. Take out places, donut shops, stand alone bakeries, and resturants all can be good sources. Some recylce them and so can't give them away. Others just toss them and will gladly give you some.
As for what to start, I would bet that you could start almost anything by now in California's climate. We already planted our cabbage, broccolli, and brussel sprouts. Today we're going to go plant some potatoes, onions, and maybe radishes. Still too early here for the tomatoes to go out, but there they should be fine.
In So Cal, we grow what other climates grow in Fall during Winter and early Spring. It won't start getting really warm until late June, and will stay warm well into October and possibly November. You can start a second crop of Summer vegetables at about the time the rest of the country is sowing their Fall crop. There is no time of year here when you can't grow something edible.
Thanks Wendi. Hope all is well with you and the fam.
Appreciate it Paige.
Word. Thanks for the advice. I'm gonna hit up some places this weekend and get some containers. Gonna need to find some local organic soil and compost as well to get the seeds started. I know of a guy who I can get plants from. How's your stuff coming along?
Getting used to a whole new climate and resources is gonna be a whole other learning experience here. I'll most definitely be hitting you up for advice and resources.
Welcome back man.. im getting my garden ready as well… im starting from scratch and basically doing some intense research for my garden to thrive… ill def be visiting you a lot… lets get gardening…
hey everyone out there visit your local thrift store to get your containers as well. i got 15 containers all for 5$… check out your thrift store you will find a lot of things you can use there…
Thanks. There are so many places that you can get them. Need to be creative. I gotta start collecting some containers this wknd. Hopefully at no cost…
So glad I found this blog! I'm also moving to Southern California (Moreno Valley) this summer from the East Coast (Virginia), and am prepping for the differences in growing seasons. As a novice balcony gardener, I'm looking forward to reading about your trials in the new climate!
Nice. We'll be learning together.
Congrats on the new home. LA is a dry place and all their water is imported. I hope you'll be able to set something up to catch some rainwater for your plants.
I really need to start composting. Our stuff is doing good. Indoors the strawberry survived another cat attack, and the pepper plant has a pepper. The tomatoes are too big to stand up on their own. We can't plant them for another week or two.
Outside our cabbage, broccoli, and brussel sprouts got a little frost burn, but I think most of them will survive. The other day we planted red onions, 4 varieties of potatoes, shallots, carrots, radishes and black simpson lettuce. All seeds or seed potato pieces. We have a lot more to do.
I'm really looking forward to seeing what you do with all that space. You should be able to grow almost year round out there.
Good call on that. I didn't think that I'd make/buy one because it's so dry, but even more reason to harvest it when it does come down. Also gonna be using lots of grey water from the sink and shower as well.
Nice. Sounds like you got lots going on. You should totally compost. It's simple, will help to keep food out of the landfill and will cut down on your gardening costs. No need to buy stuff that you can make on your own.
Awesome, I just decided to start my own garden here in Miracle Mile, and I’m going to keep a keen eye on your blog to see progress and pickup some good tricks.