gm! lovers of trees, gardens and green beings of this planet.   

My mother loves gardening, which meant that as a young boy I was always around gardening.    We've had avocado trees and lime trees in our backyard.  Morning glories covering the tool shed, A vegetable patch with carrots, strawberries, rosemary, basil, oregano, lavender and a bunch of other goodies to eat and cook with.

As a non-so-fully evolved man-child, I don't have the privilege of having a lot of gardening space anymore, because I live smack dab in the middle of concrete jungle-land.   Yep, downtown.   Sure I got this beautiful sunrise this morning,

<img src="https://files.peakd.com/file/peakd-hive/alex-rourke/23yTqZSHMwpujn7jbx1b6EnqKfijoYkD5sm4MejU7QjqkRM1g6QzkVCZ3XVh5G2DRdRWG.jpg" alt="Urban Gardening 00 - sunrise.jpg">


 But only  because there was marvelous symphony of ambulance, a police siren and construction site going on, so I had to get up and close the window.


Thankfully, the joy of caring for the chlorophyllic beings of planet Earth is a hobby that can be practiced anywhere on the globe, right? :)

which is why I'm putting together an urban garden of my own.

<img src="https://files.peakd.com/file/peakd-hive/alex-rourke/Eos1MbRrkkMRuk8djomFicqY1yRTmaJJ4cuB8GeQc42GPJCr6Xs2Dr8TuHCKrgHADZy.jpg" alt="balcony garden.jpg">
whoops! basil looks like she needs some water.  Guess I don't have mom's green thumb  
😄  I'll get on that as soon as I finish my post.

<img src="https://files.peakd.com/file/peakd-hive/alex-rourke/EonmuRJk61oAy4x1JUPNoBhE7ZeR6RgZzdpx8f165fwfTkT9g3ABpz4gC4vvr33mBbQ.jpg" alt="under the stairs plants.jpg">



<div class="pull-left">
https://images.ecency.com/DQmcn3KXYpfEr1Armbc6DRfG1xdDe8kqabR5qijKzLuT5cT/img_0.6864265327936684.jpg
</div>


<div class="pull-right">
https://images.ecency.com/DQmZRjknebDVrRSzRfhkNjz2wxK2T6Be33XWTFbtgyiohEE/img_0.03994198589355104.jpg
</div>





___
<div class="pull-left">
Today we glanced over at our our corn plant (DRACAENA FRAGRANS also sometimes referred to as trunk of Brazil) and noticed it was looking rather crooked.   We don't want her to topple over and we'd like her to continue growing, so we decided it was time to give her a new home.

We headed over to the local garden supply store on foot (since we don't own a car anymore) and picked up a slightly larger pot for her.

</div>



<div class="pull-right">
<img src="https://files.peakd.com/file/peakd-hive/alex-rourke/23yJG8oAHzNjdv6NPar8sE5WS6VY2spk5wKDSy1nJ394E2HujtFDLLZBNYTCYkiqZaQTr.jpg" alt="Urban Gardening 01.jpg">
</div>


____

Here it is:

<img src="https://files.peakd.com/file/peakd-hive/alex-rourke/EonmUrjm5LHykmgh7H4iNA215qnQnA3SiM3iGYyHnCsFRNUoFv2J11sGcw5ZoPaPPVs.jpg" alt="Urban Gardening 02.jpg">

<img src="https://files.peakd.com/file/peakd-hive/alex-rourke/EpQwjU4E84E2GdpiJTWjhEe9rE7EQTqd3W2DEct5zLRuK1WWnsa8ZmrmJRKcujwDuJE.jpg" alt="Urban Gardening 03.jpg">

See? she'll have plenty of room to stretch her roots in here :)  
 ___
<div class="pull-left">
<div class="pull-left">
<img src="https://files.peakd.com/file/peakd-hive/alex-rourke/2423yvtTPhFHTfRRyRbC4LMU9CaT68ZJqNA8A5wUcNK6uhskCbBMkXMt6KkuzzXxUM66m.jpg" alt="Urban Gardening 04.jpg">
</div>
</div>

We got 30 lbs of black soil to add to the new pot.  It probably needs a little more, but hey, we're on foot, and that's all we could comfortably carry today.    
mmmmmmm smells delicious.  

 Looks lovely too! 



<img src="https://files.peakd.com/file/peakd-hive/alex-rourke/Eou9eMmHYrJmiJc2B99MWj8oxskt2Ay7Rdp3LoYx3E6wbzT2xoYCZxJetr245xKXkeM.jpg" alt="Urban Gardening 05.jpg">

We started by giving the smaller pot a few light taps with a hammer to loosen the soil a little bit.

<img src="https://files.peakd.com/file/peakd-hive/alex-rourke/EpJZ7QS3fVGEmYYkJm2biC87tuimRQPHMyNbTmLC7Pfpzkmbb5xV62sScuJPj8BfiTZ.jpg" alt="Urban Gardening 06.jpg">


Then, with a firm, but careful tug, we pulled her out of her pot, roots and all, and gently placed her in the new larger pot for her to live in.



![changing pots_5.gif](https://files.peakd.com/file/peakd-hive/alex-rourke/23z7GDALcyHjkzksQ1DW6UDBPxyWUXJabCcEUERhdXgP43mVttXFdcUvqi1a7LA5bSE6d.gif)

There we go!

look at that; she's nice and straight and got plenty of leg room for many months to come.  We'll put her in the corner for now. Let's see how she likes it.

<div class="pull-right">
<img src="https://files.peakd.com/file/peakd-hive/alex-rourke/243BghsGLqdmp9nKgrndJV47GAY3aPGdADsjNyBZSa6bWobh8aBHPJqVGJBWCEh4MR5Zt.jpg" alt="Urban Gardening 08.jpg">
</div>


<div class="pull-left">
<img src="https://files.peakd.com/file/peakd-hive/alex-rourke/23yThCUm3AFNpwckFnMYPrTR6eViR7KBbhFeshCUgwbfN9Pz73tGF2aME54wSu9gUwPCa.jpg" alt="Urban Gardening 07.jpg">
</div>

The final step in the move is getting some worm tea ready.    A few years ago, we started a three tier vermi-compost system in our apartment to put our fruit and vegetable scraps in.   It's very easy to set up, maintain and it doesn't give off any odor at all.  It basically works like this:

The red wigglers go in the top bin where you put some worm bedding made form peat moss, cardboard, and some regular garden soil.    This is where you put fruit and vegetable peels and coffee grinds.  Nothing greasy please!   I hear this can cause total disaster and funky smell.

I like to burry the food scraps and cover the soil with newspaper and cardboard.   We do this about every 30 days.

<img src="https://files.peakd.com/file/peakd-hive/alex-rourke/23w3CvexiAwpkL5yZJ7obUCUXPPnFXBf3TGqngLzN2Zc4TXxFpFYVC8vQ2RhWhAUCBdyS.png" alt="Urban Gardening 10.png">
	<a href="https://deepgreenpermaculture.com/2014/09/23/worm-farming/">image source</a>

The worms will quietly go through the food scraps and produce amazing worm castings and worm tea (worm juice?) in the process. This is what I have here:
<img src="https://files.peakd.com/file/peakd-hive/alex-rourke/Eoc75wQQAZNFQvUsm4TwSGTv7b1xSwpiWp7fncGMfy24z5c5pwjSHTCNFkdgxvTQ1WA.jpg" alt="Urban Gardening 09.jpg">

We like to make a 50/50 mix of worm tea and water and give it to all the plants.  They seem to find it yummy.  I can tell because they tend to grow nice and healthy with this boost of nutrients :)

Enjoy the rest of your Sunday folks, hope to see some of your gardens