Hi all! I’ve found so much good info in this community and thought it might be cool to share what I’m doing.
I decided when I moved into my own place after a relationship broke up (among other problems he was controlling about my gardening) to go full-on midlife crisis with my gardening dreams, which has been present throughout my life. When I was a kid I used to spend hours with my mom’s Burpee catalog reading and designing gardens. However I’ve lived a lot of my life on the road or in cities. I love both cities and nature, and while probably one day I’ll end up in the middle of nowhere homesteading I don’t want to wait any longer while doing my city life, and figured to go whole ham. Worse comes to worst I run out of space and sell things and up-pot what’s left. I picked my apartment bc it had this huge deck on the roof of the next building over, 10x24. No buildings blocking sun, it’s crazy! Unobstructed light from the E, W and S. There is a south-facing brick wall the deck is connected to which creates a little microclimate there, seems to block a little of the NW winds as well.
I’ve got a ton of projects coming along and things planted out since last fall (2025) or in the mail to be planted shortly.
I managed to buy 6 greenstalk planters all on big sales, this is where I’ll be growing the bulk of my veggies and also my strawberries. Can’t stop won’t stop: I got Old North Sea (etsy) and Quinault (Scenic Hill) last fall. Most but not all of these made it through our crazy winter (the ONS fared worse) so I decided to grab a couple more each of Mary’s Peak, Puget Crimson, Shuksan, and Albion. These will fill up most of 1 greenstalk. Love that I can order just 5 or 10 crowns if I want from SH.
I also am obsessed with figs, got some from Anthony (check out his lil suburban setup, it’s awesome!) in the NE: CLBC, VdB, Teramo, Barbillone, Paradiso Bronze (it’s a AJH type), Smith, Olympian. I’ll probably trade/sell that, it was a bonus one. I also managed to snag a tiny rooted Green Michurinska for just $5 recently from a guy in South Jersey, keep an eye out each spring! He had 50 but he told me collectors snagged most, I got the last one). They are all in 1-5 gal pots depending on how old they are. I don’t think I’ll ever do more than 10 gal with them but realistically will probably keep it at 5. I’d rather have more varieties than a massive tree.
I also managed to get a Top Hat and a Pink Lemonade blueberry from a pollinator/native plants nursery near me.
I love berries so I started getting into trouble with those 
. I’d done well with things from Scenic Hill in the past so I have gotten the following from them last fall: Cascade Gold, Joan J, Columbia Star. I also already had a Glencoe from a local nursery that survived my ex’s place. The Cascade Gold took some cold damage this winter though seems to be alive at the base. So OFC I decided to order another yellow, Honey Queen (supposedly more cold hardy? and a different flavor I guess?) and why not a thornless Boysenberry while I was at it? I also grabbed Shekinah (Tehi) on an order from Raintree since I had not seen a thornless black raspberry before. These are all in 5 gal grow bags for now and other than Cascade Gold are doing really well. Also I grabbed a Red Candy lingonberry which seems super happy in my “shade” area (the ostrich ferns didn’t seem as happy there, but let’s see if they come back)
Well I guess the long winter got to me so I started dreaming of other stuff. I love persimmon and decided to give Cardinal a try, which is supposed to be smaller. It supposedly grows slowly so I figured why not get started. I was originally discouraged to grow persimmon in a pot by this local nursery but bored this winter said F it why not. BUT that place DID let me grab a couple pomegranates, I’m also obsessed with them and was lucky to travel for a summer in the ‘stans a decade ago. I have a Salavatski and a K5 that seem very happy so far. And they did “mystery” currants, looks like I picked up a Red Lake.
While I was at it (One Green World) I figured hey let’s try some crazy stuff! I saw a columnar peach (Crimson Rocket) and got that, and took advantage of their citrus selection to get a Miho Wase mandarin (a local guy said he does well with them here) and a Sudaichi (more limey than yuzu, I’m into it). Also got a Korelle lingonberry to help my Red Candy out (tho my RC looks super vigorous and has already gotten fruit)
I learned that mini dwarf roostock were a thing while researching the columnar peach. Raintree had lots of plants growing on these, well you know what came next. Ordered a Liberty (localish guy James Prigioni- growing near where I grew up in Jersey- raves about these) and a Hudson’s Golden Gem (HGG is supposed to taste more pear like which I prefer over apples) on EMLA 27. Grabbed one last blueberry (Draper) while I was at it.
OFC then Raintree sent out a promo to add on extra trees to your order with free shipping…I decided on a Craig’s Crimson on Newroot which was the only minidwarf cherry they still had. Hope it ends up self-fruitful, seems mixed on the internet. I read the Black/White Gold do well out East so if they are in stock next year I’ll try for them.
I have sourced most of my pots either as fabric grow bags or off of fb marketplace for cheap. In the beginning with my greenstalks and first few trees (other than blue/lingons, I got a special mix for those) I was using Ocean Forest + extra perlite but now I’m shifting to cococoir + compost (free in Philly!) + perlite + osmocote to keep it more affordable.
OK well that’s what I’ve been up to for now! Off to get more compost and plant in strawberries, the Honey Queen, and purple passion asparagus (yes, yet another crazy container project)
