michamo

[michamo]

Salad seeds after sowing (1 week)

Salad seedling after pricking

1 week after pricking the juvenile plant

[michamo]

Sowing seeds in January

In January, many gardeners start sowing their seeds indoors on the windowsill.

Sowing seeds indoors has many advantages: First of all, sun-loving vegetables such as chillis, tomatoes, peppers or eggplants tend to grow more slowly than other vegetables such as lettuce, radishes, carrots etc.

You can therefore start the sowing in the first month of the year so that you can plant them out in time for the summer season.

In addition, earlier sowing can lead to an earlier harvest, which in turn leads to better yields at harvest.

However, sowing indoors can be a major challenge. Some plants need more soil then others when sowing, and there are plants, that require certain temperatures and lighting to grow as a plant. Otherwise they will grow weak and cannot survive outdoors.

You will need following materials for successful sowing:

- good sowing soil

- planting tops materials like empty toilet rolls, old vegetable container with holes or quick pots

- heating mat for sun-loving vegetables like chillis, tomatoes etc.

- good lightning at the windowsill or plant lamps (optional)

[michamo]

First of all, plant your vegetable garden

Before you start sowing vegetable seeds, it is important to plant the vegetable garden. Ask yourself these simple questions:

"What vegetables do I want to sow and eat?"

"Do I have enough space for these vegetables?"

"How are the weather conditions like on my balcony/ in my garden?"

I always make a list of the vegetables I want to sow and then measure out the space in my garden. You can also create extra space in your garden with flower pots.

Altogether you can divide the vegetables into three different categories: low feeders, medium feeders and heavy feeders.

Heavy feeder vegetables are cucumbers, zucchinis, tomatoes, peppers, potatoes, eggplants etc.

These vegetables require more space in the bed and more nutrients than medium and low feeder vegetables.

A list of the categories can be seen below:

You can then start planning your vegetables, with for example a planting calendar. If you google it, you can find free calendars on the internet. It's also important to know which vegetables can coexist on the raised beds and which ones don't get along - otherwise they'll grow poorly or get lots of plant diseases.

I have created my list using an Excel spreadsheet. The link to my spreadsheet is just below.

[michamo]

"Learn from yesterday, live for today, hope for tomorrow. - Albert Einstein

New Year - New Garden and new me!

Last year, in 2024, I tried to start a balcony vegetable garden as a new hobby and a new way to use the balcony - it was just empty and devoid of life. So my boyfriend and I built two raised beds for our tiny vegetables.

Little by little, I planted more and more vegetables over the different seasons. In summer, the view was completely different from the balcony view was before - not as oppressive as at the beginning. Unfortunately, there were also complications with growing vegetables (both indoors and outdoors) .. But now I am hoping for a better yield and a better experience for my raised vegetables. So I decided to write this blog to save and share my progress for you.

I hope you will like it ~ ♡

~ Beans are simple vegetable plants and can be sown directly outdoors. ~