Fire Escape Garden Update

Things have been humming along in my little urban fire-escape garden.  The relative isolation of the container garden makes it seem like a little island onto itself sometimes.  Perched on the 5th fire-escape of a Manhattan apartment building, there is little if any ecology to speak of.  Unlike my sub-urban garden back in Pennsylvania, this little enclave doesn't have to contend with dozens of species of native insects and flora.  However, there is one pest that I had to deal with, pigeons.  These animals are the air-borne equivalent of rats.   These birds have caused me much headache due to their eating of seeds and seedlings that I've planted in the past.  

In any case, the Green onions are thriving in their little pots.  The lettuce seeds have sprouted and are now growing vigorously.  The peas have have been a temperamental lot.  1 of the Oregan Giant Peas have sprouted quickly.  A

nother 2 of the sugar snap peas have also sprouted, but their growth has been rather anemic.

I've become rather attached to my little urban garden.  These little containers of greenery seem to have an enormous, rejuvenative effect upon a person.  Just looking at the little emerald clusters of growth early in the morning seem to make my entire workday feel much better!

Re-vamping the Fire-Escape Garden 3/15

Spring time has hit the city with full force this weekend, and of course I simply had to get my Urban fire-escape garden ready for action.  I didnt' have to worry much about compost, I had an entire year's supply within my compost bin.  The bigger challenge is to create a design which maximizes the tiny space allotted to me on that fire escape.  The fire-escape railings offers a perfect opportunity to garden in 3 dimensions.  So with this in mind, I coughed up some hard currency and bought 3 Container holders which could be hung from the Railings.  This maximized the central area while at the same time allowed for the suspended containers and planter boxes to receive more sunlight.

Once the hanging fixtures were in place, I proceeded to recharge my containers with plentiful helpings of compost which I brewed throughout the last year.  The compost didn't carry much of a smell, although one could clearly see fragments of newspaper and egg shells

mixed with the rich, dark, compost.  After this step was complete I had 5 containers and 1 Planter box ready for planting.

To maximize space and sunlight, I planted peas in the planter box and one of the suspended containers.  In another suspended container, I put in some lettuce seeds for an early harvest.  Of the 3 remaining containers, 2 were already estabilished with green onions from last year.  The 3rd one, I'm planning to use for growing Basil once the weather gets a bit warmer.