Thinking about 2010
January 26, 2010
It’s been a long cold winter here (relative to our usual expectations) but hopefully now we are near the end. I was out on the balcony last weekend and there are even signs of growth in places – raspberries and garlic come to mind. There were some carrots and kale that survived the freeze (fair play!) so I brought them in to cook:
The carrots were quite bitter so they didn’t make it all the way to dinner. The kale was great though.
Last year I had quite an experimental season, trying a large variety of food to find some that worked well for me. Some worked well and some didn’t. This year, I want to a bit a bit less experimental and more focused on efficiency. I really want to see how much of our food we can produce in our apartment. This means that I will be narrowing our focus, most likely to: herbs, potatoes, tomatoes, chilis and leaves (lettuce, rocket, kale). These were the plants from last year which were space-efficient, not too difficult or troublesome in our environment and of course ones we enjoyed cooking and eating.
I will follow up soon with a more concrete plan but for the moment I am concentrating on getting the balcony back in shape – repairing bits and cleaning bobs – so we can start planting in March-ish.
As this is my final year of my PhD however, posts to Eight Square Metres may be less frequent compared to last year but I will still pop from time to time with updates of our growing and, if I’m not here, I’m probably over on twitter 
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Hello
I am a fan of your blog and keep up to date with your success growing in a small space via you Twitter-ing.
As you have been so successful at growing in this kind of space I was wondering if you would be interested in giving an informal chat to a group I help run? The group is called GIY Blanchardstown and is part of the GIY Ireland organisation.
We are a not for profit who meet once a month to share tips and stories in the hope of growing our own vegetables and the such.
Many of our members have quite small spaces to grow in and I know that they would love to hear from someone like yourself who has overcome that obstacle. If you are interested I could forward on the dates that we have planed for near future meetings and we could go from there.
Thank you and I look forward to hearing from you
Rebecca
GIYblanch@gmail.com
Hi there,
I know that you will not be posting much on this blog due to your Phd commitments, but I am so glad I have found it. I recently lost my allotment plot, and am now havingto grow veg, fruit and salad leaves in a small space in my garden, inc pots. I have no doubt that your blog will prove to be a source of inspiration.
@Rebecca Hi Rebecca – thanks for your interested and drawing my attention to your group! I’m flattered you ask me to speak but unfortunately I have very little free time at the moment due to my studies. Be sure to keep dropping by and let me know how you are getting on!
@mangocheeks Thank! Don’t worry I’ll still be updating from time to time; just maybe not as frequently as last season
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