I want to start this post off by saying that there is no way that Target should replace the need for a “real” garden center. It’s not possible for a generalist to do a specialist’s job as good as the specialist. Know what I’m saying?

Now that I’ve got that guilt off my chest, I really have to take my hat off to Target for the strides they’ve made in their garden section. I think it’s a great place for a busy person to grab a few things while also picking up a gallon of milk and a package of socks. I also saw decent quality  tools, pots, ornaments and furniture at reasonable prices. And their plants, well there’s room for improvement there, but you can get some good deals on interesting plants at Target too.

Seed Starting

This is the area of Target’s garden section that first caught my eye. Target carries a line of eco-friendly seed starting products from Burpee. I saw biodegradable fiber pots (both single pots and ones formed into six packs) and seed starting trays made out of a biodegradable plastic made from corn. This is definitely a move in the right direction for both Burpee and Target. Though I was disappointed that these products were right next to a whole bunch of Scott’s and Miracle Grow products. The disconnect was pretty strange.

Of course, Target also carries plenty of seeds, both from Burpee, and a line created especially for Target under the Sean Conway brand. I don’t have any experience with the Sean Conway seeds, but I’ve had good success with Burpee.

Containers

I was also really impressed with Target’s selection of pots. It was by no means “huge” but they had many different attractive options in several different styles, from modern to ethnic to traditional. Glazed, terracotta, metal, plastic, etc. They were all at very reasonable prices. I don’t think I saw a pot for more than $50, and that was a large glazed pot that would cost $20 more somewhere else. I should also point out that Target had several nice looking hanging baskets and I was happy to see they were lined with coir, which is more environmentally sustainable than peat moss.

Tools, Ornaments & Lighting

I saw lots of options for container gardeners in this department. Target has tons of solar powered lights in all sorts of different styles that you can buy one at a time. They also had plenty of small statues, fake mushrooms, funny little gnomes, and the like, perfect for nestling in a pot.I also spotted a few water fountains and bird baths. Target also carries a line of tools from Fiskars which looked solid, but obviously at the $12.99 price point you’re not going to be handing the pruners down to your grandchildren. They had gloves and garden clogs too.

Plants

I saved the plants for last because I think this part of the garden section still needs to most work. Target has done a great job improving the diversity of plants they offer, and I really appreciate that they offer a large number of drought tolerant plants in their Southern California stores. But some of the offerings are just gimmicks, like the seed kit above. No one can grow roma tomatoes and basil plants in a small windowbox-shaped pot. I hope these sort of items aren’t good sellers.

And while I understand that you can’t offer plants at great prices and still afford to hire first rate horticulturists, a little training on proper watering would go a long way. Every time I’ve walked through this department I’ve seen plants that are dying because of either too much or too little water. I’ve also seen plants that have been there for awhile that would look a million times better if someone would just cut off the spent flowers.

Final Thoughts

The point about high quality nursery staff is one I want to end on. I feel mixed emotions about publishing this post. Target’s great prices come at the cost of experienced staff that can advise you about how to plant a tree or which plants are good for adding color in a shady spot. While you can buy a lot of plants without really needing assistance, when you do need that help, I can tell you from my own experience how valuable a well-educated, experienced nursery person can be.

I’m worried that if Target starts eating into nursery profits (or if it already has), they won’t be able to hire as many good quality employees. Also, a few thousand square feet in a Target store can’t possibly contain the diversity of plants that a few acres of an excellent nursery can accomodate. Basically, I’m concerned that if I shop at Target today, I’ll regret the lack of nurseries to shop at tomorrow.

We watched this video in my master gardener class yesterday, when talking about what NOT to do to control gophers…

If you’re using the LOTB Desktop wallpapers, don’t forget to switch to the February wallpaper!

I wanted to take a second to apologize for the lack of posts this week. I’m in the midst of moving and I thought I would be able to keep on top of writing posts for LOTB, but obviously I underestimated how exhausting moving is and my need for more than 2 or 3 hours of sleep. I won’t have internet access until Monday, so check back Tuesday for a fresh post.

There is no doubt about it, killing a plant is a real bummer. But don’t feel too bad, everyone has done it. Any gardener that tells you they’ve never killed anything is either lying or hasn’t been gardening for very long.

My Coleus Topiary

Last year I procured a small cutting of a pretty unusual variety of coleus. I babied my cutting. I gave it special fertilizer. I sprayed the leaves with watered down seaweed extract. I turned it 90 degrees each day so that plant would grow lopsided. When it was big enough to start pruning into a topiary, I used a pair of bonsai snippers I had around (from when I killed a bonsai). By the end of the summer, it was 18 inches tall, had a nice thick, straight trunk, and a full, beautifully shaped ball at the top.

The first 6 weeks of Fall are pretty warm in Southern California, so I left the coleus topiary outside, with plans to bring it inside when it got cold. In most parts of the country, coleus are annuals. But with a little TLC, they can be tender perrenials here. I have one near my front door that has been there for two and a half years.

I think you know where I am going with this. I forgot about my coleus, and one night it got pretty cold. I accidentally left my coleus in an unprotected spot that first night of low temps and didn’t notice for a couple of days. By the time I found it, there wasn’t much I could do. The leaves had liquified, and it was mostly just a bunch of stems. Over the next few days they shriveled, and within 10 days the plant was dead.

RIP coleus topiary! I didn’t mean to kill you…

The Death of Kaikit’s Nasturtium

I am a total beginner gardener. I planted two nasturtiums seeds in a pot about 6 months ago. One of them grew really fast and well. Then the other started growing. And when they were about 15 cms tall. They were all entangled around each other. In an attempt to untangle them, I broke one of them. I was really heartbrokened, as it was one of the first plants i have ever planted. I tried to tape it back. Stake it. But still I had to watch it die. My lesson learned: I should have just left it alone in the first place. Now the remaining one is thriving and flowering. But the empty space next to it always makes it look a bit lonely.

Abigail’s African Violet Bites the Dust

When I was 12-1/2 my family moved. One of my friends gave me a beautiful African Violet as a going-away gift. I loved the flowers and the plant, but didn’t have any experience with or knowledge of them, and of course the little tag that comes with them doesn’t tell you much.

I kept it alive for several months, but shortly after my 13th birthday it started looking a bit sick. This was in the middle of winter in Iowa, and I thought that maybe it was feeling stifled, being cooped-up inside all the time. Maybe it needed some fresh air. I opened my bedroom window where the plant was sitting– letting the crisp, cold, North-American winter air breeze over the leaves of my tropical plant. The window was only open less than an hour, but the next day my plant was completely dead.

My mom tried not to laugh at me when I told her what happened. I felt really bad, almost as sad as I had felt when my pet cat was hit by a car. I determined to learn how to take care of flowers from then on, and began poring over the gardening magazines at my grandparents’ home. (I soon learned that African Violets are one of the fussiest house plants available, which made me feel somewhat better.) Gardening runs in my family, so maybe I would have developed an interest in it without this sad event happening, but this felt like a turning point in my life. I maintained a flower garden all through high school, and just started vegetables this year. (I’m now 27.)

Have you ever killed a plant? Receive absolution for your inadvertant killing by admitting to your sins in the comments!

Laura of Punk Rock Gardens tagged me with an Honest Scrap Award, which as far as I can tell, means I have to tell you ten interesting–and honest–things about myself. As hard as this is to believe, I really hate talking about myself (what kind of dork has a blog but doesn’t like to be “out there?!”). Someone mentioned in the State of the Balcony survey that I should make LOTB more personal, more about my own garden and lessons learned directly from it. But that is my idea of hell. I like hiding behind a “magazine” style.

Anyway, here goes…

1. My first “life” was as a graphic designer. My BA is in Art with an emphasis in graphic design. Nowadays I use my design skills to airbrush the photos of myself that I put on the internet. My skin isn’t nearly as smooth, evenly colored, and wrinkle free as it appears on the “About” page.
2. I also have a law degree that I have never formally used. Going to law school was the biggest mistake (and most expensive) of my life so far.
3. I spend a tremendous amount of time in the bathtub. If I could live in a bubble of warm water for my entire life and never get pruned feet, I would do it in a heartbeat.
4. I feel sorry for insects that have an extremely short lifespan and whole purpose in life is to mate and lay eggs before dying. I wonder what is the point of their existence? I hope that human life isn’t just a stretched out version of those insects’ lives.
5. I can’t stand snobs. More than anything, elitism is the character trait I despise the most. I see it sometimes in the gardening world and it really turns me off. I don’t buy a particular magazine anymore because I just couldn’t stand their high falutin’ style anymore, even though I loved their photos and topics of their articles.
6. I have absolutely no idea what I want “to do with my life.” Lots of things interest me. All I know is that I can’t stay at my current job for much longer. It’s a dead-end, with no opportunity to be promoted.
7. I studied abroad in Budapest and Paris, and had a fantastic time. As far as I can tell, I am the only American who went to France and didn’t encounter a single snobby Parisian. Maybe I just wasn’t looking hard enough, but I found the fact that sexual harassment is completely normal in France to be far more annoying.
8. I’m a registered Republican. Now y’all can say that you know one. Actually, I’m more of a Libertarian who leans Republican, but I’m not a fan of third parties, so I registered as a Republican. Mostly, I distrust the government to do anything well except run the military and waste tax dollars.
9. I was a cry baby well into my 20s. My husband used to counsel me to “not cry” whenever I told him I needed to talk to a boss or professor about something. But to be honest, I like crying. It feels calming and freeing to me.
10. I’m extremely close to my husband (of course) and family and have very few close friends. I don’t think I developed very good friend-making skills growing up. I guess that’s something I can work on in 2010.

I know it’s only’s December 18th, but is it too early to start thinking about what we should do better next year? Because I already have a couple of resolutions in mind.

For starters, I don’t want to buy a single plant in 2010. I’m going to grow everything from seed or propagate them from my existing plants. I’m tired of instant gratification. It’s exhausting to constantly chase fulfillment through yet another plant from the nursery. I want to be fulfilled by the process, not the purchase.

I also want to focus on refining my gardening skills. I am starting the master gardener program soon and I’ll be learning a lot of things about being a more technically proficient gardener. I’m really looking forward to that. For example, I don’t really feel competant when making pruning cuts on my fruit trees. I want to make better pruning decisions and improve the beauty of my trees and the quality of their fruit production.

Another thing I want to focus on is finetuning my knowledge of plants that are particularly well suited to container gardening and small spaces. I want to be able to say ‘xyz’ variety of blueberries work really well in a tight space. Or, ’such and such’ is a really great vine for growing on balcony railings because it won’t damage the paint and is easy to remove when you move.

Anyway, that’s what’s been on my mind lately. What do you want to improve in 2010?

Photo by Chrysti

Congrats to Lisa of Craft My Bride. Your comment was randomly selected to win the Botanical Interests container vegetable gift collection. Botanical Interests will be shipping out your prize ASAP, so you should receive it before Christmas. Enjoy! And best wishes for a happy marriage!!!

I want to take a second to say thank you to Claire and Janet for their great guest posts this week. Both posts were a wonderful addition to the blog.

In case you somehow missed their awesome posts, you should definitely check them out:

• How to Grow a Fig Tree in a Container
• Grow Your Own Birdhouse: How to Grow Birdhouse Gourds

You can find more great ideas from Claire and Janet on their websites. Claire’s site is Plant-Passion.co.uk, and Janet’s is GreenUrbanLiving.co.nz.

Be sure to check back tomorrow for a guest post written by Hannah about composting on your balcony.

p.s. LOTB seems to be attracting a lot of international guest posts. Hannah is in Israel, Janet is in New Zealand, and Claire is in Great Britain. If you live abroad and would like to write for Life on the Balcony, send me your ideas! And if you live in North America, I guess you can write for LOTB too.

I really appreciate all the feedback you guys have been giving me in the State of the Balcony survey. If you haven’t taken the survey yet, please take a second to do so. It’s only 9 questions long, I’m sure you could complete the whole thing in 5 minutes or less. I promise that your responses are really being taken to heart. I’m not some ginormous mega-corp that doesn’t care about the people I interact with. It’s just little ‘ole me behind the scenes, so I really need your help to make Life on the Balcony the best it can be.

This weekend, I will be implementing the redesign of Life on the Balcony, so you may find that there are times when the site is down or loading really slowly. I apologize for this incovenience, but as I mentioned before, I am all there is here, so I am my own tech team. But I plan on including some of the suggestions people have made in the survey into the redesign, so hopefully you all will feel that the changes were worth the wait.

In other exciting news, I was accepted into my county’s Master Gardener program. I can’t wait to start the classes this January. What this means for Life on the Balcony readers is lots of access to first rate information. I will be taking classes from experts on pest management, pruning, fertilizing, choosing appropriate plants, growing edibles, and more. I will be passing along all sorts of good things I learn here on the blog.

If all that wasn’t enough, next week I will be launching a new contest. The prize will be one of Botanical Interests new container gardening gift boxes. The box contains all sorts of seeds perfect for growing in a container, and is wrapped in a beautiful box with a bow and everything. It would make a perfect gift (be sure to check out their other gift boxes too). This is perfect timing because next week will also see the publication of TWO awesome (and I mean *AWESOME*) guest posts from Claire and Janet. If you’d like to write for Life on the Balcony, send me your idea. I would love to hear from you. I am absolutely blown away by the high quality of writing and ideas that I’ve seen so far.

Finally, I saved the best for last. It looks like a move that has been in the works since MAY of this year is finally coming to fruition. I don’t want to jinx it by saying that I will definitely be moving, but we are closer than ever before. So I finally have a glimmer of hope that we’ll be moved in by the begining of 2010. The new place has an awesome balcony, and I hope to be able to use that balcony as a test lab for Life on the Balcony ideas. I’ll be incorporating my existing pots into a new location as well as creating new things just for the new balcony. Of course, I will take photos and videos of the process, so you all will be able to see a balcony garden designed from the ground up.