It was around 1992 when I became irrevocably hooked on growing plants from seed. I was the proud, often exhausted and overly ambitious owner of a large perennial garden and far too many gardening books (Yeah I know, “Not Possible!”) and I took it into my head that life would not be complete without one or two Crambe cordifolia (of Vita Sackville-West “White Garden” fame) and some rather finicky Himalayan blue poppies – both of which needed to be started from seed.

Unlike the annual vegetable seeds that (be warned) I’ll be relentlessly promoting for anyone who wants to grow container vegetables, these perennial seeds were not considered easy to germinate or grow. But, to make a long story short, although it’s a little late for that already, I was eventually successful and from then on – totally hooked.

I have a new project that I’m starting this year and if I’m lucky, I’ll be working on it for the rest of my life. I have an online bonsai store and I’ve basically given up on finding outdoor bonsai trees in Canada. There are a few very limited sources, but they aren’t offering much depth in their online inventory and other than the odd Trident Maple, outdoor deciduous trees are not available. I’m going to change that and start growing outdoor stock and to get the variety I need, my only option is to start them all from seeds.

We’re not talking the easiest of seeds to start here (nor the hardest) since they all require extra steps like scarification and stratification. One of them – the Korean Hornbeam, Carpinus Koreana – requires about two months of warm stratification, followed by three months of cold, before anything like germination can be expected. I timed the start so that my seeds will be sprouting around April, which is when I’ll be set up to deal with them.

My delight was heavily mixed with surprise and a light sprinkling of dismay when I checked on the seeds a full 4 months before I expected to be dealing with little trees, to find that two have already sprouted. I had no pots in the house, which is hard to imagine, but true and nowhere set up to put them.

So now, I have two Korean Hornbeams, the first two trees in my outdoor bonsai nursery, growing in converted plastic water bottles on my office window sill. I check them out a few times a day. To my delight I find they remind me that that new beginnings are always possible although they won’t necessarily appear when or how you expect.

On earlier posts I’ve covered some of the basic areas you should think about before deciding what vegetables to grow on your balcony, deck or patio. If you’ve gardened for years then you already know how to accommodate the length of your growing season and you probably already have a good idea how to estimate how big your plants will get. But if you’re new to growing – especially to growing vegetables – these are important areas to consider.

I was going to talk about growing vegetables that will allow you to get the greatest possible yield from a small amount of space, but maybe if you’re already going with something that is fairly compact we can deal with concepts like multiple crops from the same small planter later.

I’ve seen articles and blog posts that talk about the money that you can save growing vegetables on your balcony. Go fish! In my experience if you’re only growing vegetables in containers on your balcony because you think you’re going to make a noticeable dent in your grocery bill- I’m sorry- you’re going to be dissappointed. Yes, you might harvest a few quarts of tomatoes at the end of the summer, but you’re going to do it at the same time that every store is flooded with cheap local produce and you could have bought your entire crop for $10.00.

But what you can do is

grow something different

– not outlandish- just a variety that you can’t already buy. If you like cucumber, why not try a beautiful little white Dragons Egg Cucumber, or a Chinese Beauty Heart Radish or how about a Green Zebra Tomato?

By taking a vegetable that you already love and growing a unique version of it, you’ll not only have the pleasure of picking your own food right from your planter, you’ll be able to treat yourself to something that you wouldn’t otherwise have a chance to enjoy. Just for the record, your local grocery store will not be filled with produce that was grown because it’s unique or unusually healthy or tasty. In fact, most produce grown commercially is selected because of it’s uniformity of size or shape, its ability to ripen in the box or survive the rigours of being trucked across the continent. You can do so much better than that. Go for something special!

Just imagine for a second what a hoot it would be to invite your friends or family over to dinner and stun them with these awesome cool green striped tomatoes or green radishes with a bright red center. Now that’s something that you can’t find in every grocery store and they taste delicious. Check out some of the wonderful heirloom vegetables at http://www.rareseeds.com

Yes, it means you will start your vegetables from seed, but trust me – it’s not difficult to do and its a ton of fun.

Bonsai is a wonderful hobby. It combines art and nature, requires patience, develops skills (and more patience) and it adds something that I find quite beautiful to your life. Bonsai trees are very loosely classified as outdoor or indoor based on whether or not they’re likely to survive winter outdoors and whether or not they need a seasonal rest at a cooler temperature.
Trees that don’t require any cooling off period or major change in seasonal care are easier to look after than ones that do and that’s one of the reasons for the greater popularity of tropical and subtropical indoor bonsai trees. The other big reason is that you can display them in your home, while a tree like a pine or crabapple must be kept outdoors or it will not be around very long.
Most people choose to start a bonsai collection with indoor trees and if you’re looking for your first indoor tree or buying one as a gift it makes sense to start with the easiest trees. So after that rather long introduction – here is a quick list of some of the best indoor bonsai for a beginner. Each of these trees is reasonably tolerant of the relatively low light conditions in most homes, won’t roll up the carpet and die at the first small watering mistake and is not generally considered to be an irresistible magnet for pests or diseases. Some people and most bonsai sites will suggest that a Serissa should be part of this list and I used to agree, but I’ve had one too many customer complain to me that they just couldn’t figure out the right way to water a Serissa and it died. Others will argue that because many of the ficus will drop their leaves at the drop of a hat, they shouldn’t be on this list. But while I agree that they can be downright ornery, the leaves will grow back and the only people I know who lost a ficus (a.k.a. fig) because of leaf drop did so because they gave up too soon and basically tossed a sulking but still very much a live tree.
Which one is right for you? Well, that’s your choice and I wouldn’t choose based on any parameter that is more complex than which tree do you like the look of.
It’s not finished yet, but over the next week I’ll build a gallery of photos of what I consider to be the best indoor bonsai for beginners; Schefflera arboricola – the Dwarf Umbrella Tree, Portulacaria afra- best known as the mini jade, some members of the Ficus family, Ulmus parvifolia – the Chinese Elm and of course the ubiquitous Juniper procumbens.
Check out the gallery listing or just click here for Easiest Indoor Bonsai for Beginners