We have now been growing an herb and vegetable garden for two and a half months! We frequently use the variations of basil, but have not used the peppers or tomatoes yet. They don't look quite ready, but I actually don't know how to tell when a vegetable is ready.

I have some photos to share that show our veggies growing and a few more photos can be seen on my last blog post of the garden update. We have a few red tomatoes that we hope will grow bigger, and we have a few bell peppers gaining in size too. My hardest thing now is to understand when the vegetable is ready without letting it grow too long.

The basil plants are still growing, but my favorite basil plant didn't reproduce more leaves after I picked some off to make hummus a while ago.

Considering the extreme heat and drought this summer and being on vacation for a few weekends, our herbs are still growing. We anticipated being away from home wouldn't be good for them. And how can anything survive in this heat? We did have a neighbor spray our balcony with a hose.

I heard that all bell peppers start the same color and then transition through colors? Anyone else think that’s true?

Once our planters moved to the balcony from sitting on the ground outside, we started to seem like legitimate urban gardeners. Our balcony planters have held up great, and the plants keep growing taller and not tipping over. They also get more sunlight while hanging. We are watering daily, one watering can full of water per box, and they seem to be withstanding the extreme heat and lack of rain.

This process has been very enjoyable and I’m not scared of gardening anymore! I hope to one day in a house with a yard be able to grow more vegetables and herbs. It’s like a little science experiment, and it’s nice to not buy herbs at the grocery store.