One of the challenges of living in an apartment is a lack of a yard. We shop at a farmers market on Saturdays and tend to find ourselves saying, "When we have a yard we will grow...". Until then, we are trying our hand at organic container gardening. We planted 5 containers of veggies just over a week ago. We have a variety of containers and mixed in some organic potting soil, worm castings, and peat moss. Seeds were tenderly planted. Each day we have delighted in watching the first tips emerge from the soil. This is especially exciting because Keith has never grown anything from seed.
We knew there would be challenges with container garden on our apartment balcony. We considered the amount of sunlight. We made sure they were in an area that we could monitor and water them easily. Container size and placement were discussed. We figured squirrels and other critters would probably not run up and down the stairs to get to our crops. It seemed that we had everything figured out.
Then I got the tragic phone call. I was out Sunday afternoon when Keith called to let me know that our smallest container that was growing runner beans was missing. Theft was not an issue we had foreseen. Granted, it was only a small container and the costs involved in planting that one pot were very small. But why the heck would anyone steal a pot of runner beans? We felt violated and saddened to lose the plant that had been off to such a great start.
We have since replanted in a larger container, theorizing that the small container was easy to carry off and the larger ones would be more difficult. Hopefully, the new beans we planted will start peeking out soon.
As in anything else we might do, no matter what you plan for the unexpected will happen. Who stole the beans? The world may never know. But we are certainly keeping an eye on some of the neighborhood kids and making sure that are containers are less portable.
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| We miss you, runner beans. |
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