Last summer, my garden was expected to be the best yet. I selected a handful of heirloom crops like tomatoes, peppers and cucumbers, and grew everything from seed. I nurtured my plants and worked hard to keep them watered. The garden flourished and looked healthy and beautiful. Except I started noticing that after flowering, instead of producing fruit, the bud would just fall off – I was having very low pollination. I wasn’t really surprised by this, considering I live on the 7th story of an apartment building and my balcony overlooks multiple parking lots. But I had high hopes that the pollinators would still be attracted to the flowers from my annuals, providing me with an abundant harvest. I still had a decent amount of tomatoes growing and got a few cucumbers, but for the amount of work I was giving to grow and care for them, the result wasn’t really worth the effort. I was also wanting to transition to more perennial crops like berries (see past posts – I’m obsessed with berries!) so I started thinking it’s time to try something new.

Around mid-summer 2022, a report came out detailing the collapse of pollinator populations and suddenly, everyone became slightly more aware of the importance of native plants. While I was already fairly informed about natives and had future plans to incorporate natives into my garden, I hadn’t considered growing them in my balcony garden. I found that most native gardeners typically didn’t recommend planting natives in containers and the information about it was really lacking. So I decided I would try it myself. I went to a local native plant sale and discussed with the staff my intentions and they recommended a few plants to try. I also grabbed a few plants from the nursery. I planted Black Eyed Susan, Bee Balm, Common Boneset, Mountain Mint, and ordered more native seeds online like Joe Pye Weed and Butterfly Weed. I decided I would dedicate one of my 50 gallon grow bags as the native pollinator garden and started planting. I also ordered a black raspberry plant, which might be considered native (but it’s a cultivar so that depends on who you ask).. 

As the winter came, I was pretty drained and didn’t want to think about garden plans for the upcoming spring. I was focused on studying for the RDN exam and really didn’t have the mental capacity to think about other things. So I didn’t make plans for a vegetable garden this year. But I continued to learn about native plants and continued to think about ways to incorporate them onto the balcony – if I wasn’t growing vegetables I wanted to at least grow something. I purchased spring ephemeral bulbs like Virginia Bluebells and Virginia Spring Beauties and tucked them into containers. I thought about which climbing natives I could add and settled on Virgin’s Bowers Clematis and Coral Honeysuckle – both agressive climbers. I watched as the overwintered plants from last summer started pushing up new growth, and others didn’t. I watched as tiny seedlings started emerging in the beds where I sprinkled seeds over the winter. And now I watch as my plants grow lush and tall, eagerly waiting for my first native flowers to start blooming!