It’s definitely a learning curve to start your plants from seed, but seeds can be gotten cheap and are easy to transport. I find beans/peas to be pretty easy to grow from seed, and their vertical growth means they don’t take up too much space.

How lovely! I’ve gotten pretty good at growing vegetables, but flowers, not so much.

Poland has a variety of hardiness zones, which will determine how much longer you have in your growing season. I would suggest things like brassicas (which include kale and broccoli), as they can handle temperatures a bit below freezing. But keep in mind the size of your balcony, as they can get pretty big.

If you can buy seedlings of annual herbs like parsley, dill, basil, there’s still time for a good harvest even in the colder areas of Poland. Do you have space where you can bring some pots inside?

Yum, I haven’t tried chocolate sprinkles before, how’s the taste?

Yeah exactly, which is why I’ve kept my mouth shut, but I did think Internet strangers might appreciate the humor.

Out of curiosity I googled “lesbian geologists,” and while I didn’t find an organization or anything, it did lead me to Ammonite, a 2020 film about the first female paleontologist Mary Anning. The film depicts her in a lesbian relationship, and although there’s no historical basis, there’s also no evidence of her ever being in a heterosexual relationship, leaving it open to question.

I thought it an interesting coincidence that I’ve just recently finished reading Ammonite, an excellent book by Nicola Griffith about a planet where a virus has wiped out all men, and the exploration of the women-only society that then developed over the centuries.

Your comment about grandparents hits true, I have fond memories of my Bestemor’s numerous houseplants, of which her African violet was always my favorite.

Oh they certainly do, once you’ve had homegrown, store bought will forever taste bland. And there’s such crazy variety, some are intensely sweet, others tart or savory.

Desperately try to foist them on friends, family, coworkers, neighbors, passing dog walkers, the mailman… anybody who’d take some 😆

Beyond that, we’d eat tomato based meals for breakfast, lunch and dinner, and we canned dozens of pints of salsa and sauce (that we’re still eating!).

Yesss, that sounds delicious. My favorite is sliced with mozzarella, basil and balsamic glaze on a slice of toasted sourdough rubbed with garlic.

Hah sure, head on out to Riverside and I’ll give you a garden tour!

Well I put the seedlings in 3 weeks later this year, so between that and the delayed heat, I’d say I’m about a month behind.

I just checked, and I harvested my first tomatoes on May 24th last year, so yeah a month tracks.

I’d say the one on the right looks pretty close for harvesting, though you could probably leave it another day or two. My general rule is I pick them when they’re as long as the distance between my thumb and pinky when outstretched (gently, not as far apart as they can go), but obviously hand sizes vary!

Excellent article, all good and easy things to do. Personally, we’ve swapped our lawn for a veggie garden and in it, we don’t use any pesticides or herbicides, and we’ve mulched heavily using Chip Drop.

You wouldn’t believe the explosion of different types of insects we’ve seen since adding that mulch, worms and grubs and millipedes that used to be rare are now everywhere! This has in turn brought more birds, including an annoying crow who repeatedly yanked out my pepper seedlings to get at tasty morsels below. We ended up having to put mesh from old window screens around them, which thankfully was enough discouragement.

Our cat also gets supervised yard time, and my fiance has managed to train her to respond to “inside!”

Hah, it does kinda look like it doesn’t it?