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It was a long cold winter this year and many plants were killed by the ton of snow Vancouver got. Luckily we have a spare room that does quite well as a greenhouse in the spring. I ordered some of my favorite plants from my favorite seed companies, in fact I even became a member of the Hudson Seed Library!

I sure hope the pau d’arco can survive up here, it isn’t really the climate for such things but the bark is such a gentle immune stimulant as well as anti-viral, and has no side effects. I have been using it for years, it is also good as an anti-fungal if you have yeast problems, so I wanted to try growing it. I thought it was a vine, though, and it turns out it is a small tree.

We immigrated last year and were really broke– actually this is very normal for us, so had to rely on what we could find in the alleys. We have a very high wall around our balcony so the plants have to be raised up to get enough sunlight. There is plenty of construction in the area so it is easy to find scrap bits of wood that we can easily convert into garden beds for my beans. I was also fortunate to come across a pile of free bricks, which I hauled home in stages in my purple suitcase and a luggage cart (boy those things are useful!) Also found pots and even a gardening trowel was found on Commercial Drive one early Sunday morning! Free stuff rules!

Part II of Balcony Garden here.