Gardening in Manhattan

When I was growing up, I remember telling my mom to shake me if I ever got as excited as she did about gardening. Luckily for me, she lives over 600 miles away so she can't easily come shake me right now. Maybe this is something that comes with age {I recently celebrated my last birthday in my 20s!} but I'm pretty flipping excited to share the little gardening success I have for you this week.

I mentioned a couple weeks ago about a few fails I had been experiencing with the balcony update and pretty much every aspect of the 4th of July planning I tried to share. You may remember there is a lot on hold as far as our balcony goes due to good ol' NYC construction. 

We were told to remove everything from our balcony and use it minimally. But since when was a New Yorker ever one to listen to rules... So I started just one part of the balcony project, adding some greenery. 

{our balcony in need of some serious love and attention}

Our balcony, while lucky to have one, is not exactly the largest of spaces, so I was limited in exactly how much greenery I could add. One plant alone could make the place look like a jungle. Then my mother-in-law helped give me this idea {she's a bit of a gardening savant}.

Yes, using an over the door shoe organizer, I was able to create a small herb garden taking up almost zero space in our balcony, but adding a lot of color and life! 

I picked up the organizer at Home Goods for $6.99. I had to cut it in half so it could fit {meaning I have another half if a shoe organizer to play with!! Organizing dreams}. Using the hooks it came with, I hung it over the side. I added soil to 8 of the pockets and started planting. 

We went to Home Depot and chose a few herbs that were likely to grow in our new herb environment. Including, basil, chives, mint, dill, parsley, oregano, thyme, and rosemary. Using some clothes pins I randomly had on hand, I labeled each pocket {except the mint. I only had 7 clothes pins, go figure, so one had to go unnamed. But I'm hoping that the scent alone will be a good indication}. 

And look at what we have here! A couple weeks later, our little guys are popping out to say hello to some construction workers! 

I absolutely love that there are still 4 more pockets for me to add more plants to, allowing more room to grow {horrible pun, but I can't help myself}. For now though, I'll just use the pockets to easily store my gardening tools. 

You may have noticed in the pictures that the soil seeps out the bottom of the pockets. Looking back, maybe I could have added some plastic or something to the pockets before adding soil to prevent this from happening... but you live and your learn.  

So that's what we have so far, and I must admit I'm quite proud of this little project. I can barely keep a cactus alive and these guys are just shooting up! Let's see how long they last before I start boasting though.

Cost: $6.99 + herb seeds
Time: 20 minutes

What kind of gardening tricks or secrets do you use to keep your greens growing? Please share! My thumb is currently yellow but inching towards a green shade in the right light.

Thanks for visiting!