How does your garden grow

guerilla garden in a newspaper box by posterchild, found here

With Spring in the air (despite the snow in parts of Vancouver lately) gardening has been fresh in my mind. I definitely dream of one day having a beautiful big section where I can grow all sorts of veggies and have cottagey, rambling garden. But for now despite living in an apartment, we're lucky enough to have a really large balcony, almost half the size of our apartment in fact, for us to garden on. Right now it's looking pretty neglected from us hibernating during the winter rain but I'm planning on having a bit of a working bee out there this weekend to get it cleaned up and ready to go. I've decided that this year I'm going to actually plan out what and where I'd like to plant, rather than just going to the farmers market and excitedly buy a bunch of corn seedlings (which did actually grow, but got dragged away by critters). After reading this post over at All Buttoned Up I felt really content with being a middle sized gardener. Biting off more than I can chew comes way too easily so this year it will be a few plants that I have time, space and patience for. I'm thinking peas, beans, tomatoes, some leafy greens a cuke or two and maybe a few fall/winter veggies. Also, because our balcony is basically a rather large concrete slab I'd like to plant some bright flowers or hanging baskets (also to bring some bees in!) and some creepers to give it more of a 'garden-y' feel. Any suggestions of hardy, fast growing creepers I can let loose on our trellis but easily stop from taking over the co-op would be great.

I'd also love to know what's in your gardens, lovely readers. Do tell!

Perhaps you'd love to try your hand at growing your own food but are also pushed for space. If so be sure to check out Gayla Trail's new book 'Grow Great Grub', all about growing organic produce in urban areas. I love how she challenges the idea of needing a ton of space to be able to have a veggie garden, and her suggestions are super creative and workable. Once you've started you'll probably need this cute 'Microfarmer' tee, too. I know I do.