Wintertime Misadventures

I chose to start gardening in October, since that is when I bought my supplies. I started my seed in 1 gallon pots which I purchased from the store.

2 weeks after germination

Now my biggest mistake here was that I did not do my homework. I have an east facing window, but because of the way the building faces, my balcony is only hit with direct sunlight until about 12PM. I now know that my lower balcony receives significantly less sunlight than the one outside my bedroom window, meaning that my little seedlings did not grow too much in the time between when I started them and when I moved them. (My balcony still does not even get 6 hrs of direct sunlight in winter). Additionally, I started way too many carrots and spinach. I was very clumsy with the seed packets and dozens of seed fell into each pot. So I had way too many seedlings without enough light and without enough growing space. I clearly was a mess. This was somewhat remedied when I brought back two 22 gallon totes from home after Thanksgiving. I learned quite a bit from these mistakes. To summarize:

• Find out how much sun the balcony gets
• Locate the optimal sunny spot
• Be careful with seed packets
• Not everything can grow in winter

The good news is that some of the seedlings did survive and will produce a small harvest. I will be planning better for spring.