containing the excitement

As the old adage goes, "If you want to have a container farm, you're gonna need containers."

OK, I just made up that adage but the truth remains the same.

I've been trying to avoid buying expensive planters from the home-outfitting-stores. They are pretty but I almost lost an eyeball in Home Depot the other day when I saw how much they cost!! So I'm embracing the idea of having an "Ugly Garden". I think Gayla of You Grow Girl mentioned this on her blog one time so I'm right on trend! Yay me!

On to the photo-show!

We found a discarded wash tub the other day while biking around. We were half way across town so it was a long ride home balancing the tub like this. I think it will probably be the future Stadium of the Peas.

As you see below, the barren balcony is filling up fast!

Living in near a university that has an agriculture program has many benefits, one of which is finding free pots in the dumpsters! Hopefully they weren't growing/researching anything too harmful in all these! (They would have put them in a biohazard bin if they were really bad right?!)

We also got the shelves from the university. The little tables holding them up are from Value Village - $5 total.

Look! The worm bin! It had to go outside because it was being bad (I'm exposing the mites to sunlight).

Look again! More containers! These are all collected from local garbages and dumpsters (plus a few old ones I already owned).

I'd really like to try to grow a coffee plant in that old, green coffee perk. I don't care if I actually get beans - I just want to have a coffee plant in honour of how much I love coffee. If anyone from Guelph is reading this, do you know where I can get green (unroasted) beans locally?

On the weekend Husband and I put up a curtain rod and hung some outdoor curtains. This is to avoid overheating in the apartment during the summer afternoons to come. The curtains are (hopefully) long enough to pull behind the plants so they can still have all the light.

The rod was a freebie from the building's Super. I had to get the mounting stuff from Home Depot for about $10. All the curtains are from Value Village for $22 (The yellow ones still had their Ikea tags on them! Brand new!).

I'm not sure why I'm mentioning how much everything cost today. Maybe just to prove how cheaply this can be done?

And lastly, the first (plant) casualty... (a lonely bugle plays somewhere in the distance...)

I knocked over this Pepper seedling this morning. So sad.