In which we find a use for our balcony
My husband and I have never been plant people. Given the frequency with which we travel (and move), plants just never seemed to be worth the effort. My attempts to grow things and keep them alive have been limited to basil plants and the odd oregano. That is, until now.
A couple weekends ago we headed to the local Praktiker to pick up some pots and dirt with the intention of growing an extended herb garden. Our new apartment has a small south-facing balcony which gets too much sun for me to ever want to sit on it, so we might as well put something else out there, we reasoned. Then we came across the little seedling plants on display. Tomatoes and peppers and zucchini, oh my! And suddenly the idea of growing my own vegetables sounded like the most awesome thing ever. We bought up a bunch of plants, a few pots, and some dirt, and headed home.
A little internet research revealed how foolish and naive we had been, expecting to fit all those plants into relatively few pots. Who knew tomatoes needed so much space per plant? Not willing to give up on our foolishly-purchased little seedlings so easily, it was back to the store for more pots and dirt. Then an afternoon of planting, and voila!, we had an adorable little balcony vegetable garden underway.
The plants are all growing well, and I couldn’t be prouder of them. See that zucchini plant flowering? I did that! And what’s this, some teeny tiny strawberries? That was me! OMG, is that the start of a green pepper? Growing? On my balcony? This is the coolest feeling ever. Life, I am a giver of life!
The thing is, now I’m kind of getting addicted. I need more. I came across a big display of seeds in the grocery store yesterday, and I started salivating as I gleefully picked out packets that could be planted in May. Arugula, radishes, carrots, peas, lettuce… I can grow these, too? It was all I could do to keep from jumping up and down and clapping in the store.
So today it was back to the home store for more pots. And a spade and a watering can. Oh yeah, we’re getting hard-core now. The cash going into this new little passion is starting to add up, too. But the way I figure it, zucchini flowers sell for up to a euro apiece at the farmers’ market; so if our three plants each produce, say, 70 flowers each, we’ll have easily made our money back. And we’ll be eating a whole lot of stuffed zucchini flowers this summer. Yum.
It always starts innocently with a plan for one or two plants, then somehow it snowballs from there into the entire balcony and a major cash outlay. 
