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 
.
8 Responses
Leave a Reply
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
.
Hi there,
Also a big fan since last year, so really that hope you do another post soon. I wanted to know if you could possibly email me back privately, as there’s an interesting idea that I want to discuss with you but as I don’t tweet/twitter, I’ve no way of making contact with you!
I stumbled upon this page by Yahoo and just wanted to take some time to say thanks for giving these great growing tips. I will be sure email this site to my friends. Thanks again!
So excited to have stumbled upon your site via The Kitchn! I used to live in Dublin and studied at Trinity, so there’s a certain amount of nostalgia I feel when I read your blog. I’ll check back soon to see how the gardening is going!
just started with my permaculture garden on my balcony of 6.72m2. not a lot of space, so I need to be innovative. follow me here: http://psyan.eu/files/category-permacultuur.html
Hi again,
I’m guessing you’re up to your eyes in exams/studies etc, but just wanted to try to make contact again, although I’m now beginning to wonder whether you’re the Scarlet Pimpernel of the gardening world. ‘They seek him here, they seek him there…”.
Just kidding, but you are hard to track down! If possible, would like to talk to you about a book that I’m working on. Sorry but I refuse to twitter, so will continue to email.
All the best,
Fionnuala