Last month, I wrote about starting a kitchen garden in a wine crate. Now, a month later, my humble beginner garden has expanded dramatically.

Thanks to Ryan and our generous downstairs neighbors, I added a bunch of nice pots to my collection and, of course, went crazy buying seeds from Fire Escape Farms. They have a great variety of seeds and tools for those of us relegated to gardening in small spaces.

Now, I’m growing salad greens, edible flowers, radishes, beets, zucchini and cucumbers, in addition to an assortment of herbs and few lone petunias for that pop of color. I also started a few small tomato plants and am hoping that they’ll produce a few luscious tomatoes before the first frost.

I’ve been surprised at how therapeutic my little garden has become. I check it first thing in the morning and am always amazed to see how things can change in just a few hours. I think Ryan even gets a little excited when I tell him about a new bud or blossom.

Next I just need to decide what to do with the mint that’s taking over the wine crate! Any ideas for great minty recipes?

- Laura

This weekend, after much talk, Ryan and I finally planted our very own mini-kitchen garden.

The idea of growing a few vegetables (or at the very least, herbs) on our fire escape has been in the back of my mind for some time now, but the thought of buying pots and containers seemed a little daunting. Then, it finally occurred to me that a wine crate would make the perfect for container for a little garden.

Most wine stores will give away the crates for free, so the price is definitely right. However, they do vary in quality—if you have a good wine store near you, you can get a crate made of pretty hard wood, but some crates are more flimsy and might not stand up well to a season outside. (Although you could always weather seal it.)

We had our neighborhood hardware store drill a few holes in the bottom of the box for drainage and then planted away.

Much of my inspiration behind our new little garden came from Williams-Sonoma’s new site, Agrarian, which focuses on growing food in containers and has helpful guides and planners.

We bought a few already-started herbs (basil and mint) and a jalapeño seedling, but also planted some summer squash and Thumbelina carrots from seed. We filled in the box with heat-resistant petunias, but these may have to go once our other plants make their appearance.

I don’t know just how green my thumb is yet, but I’m at least enjoying looking at my pink petunias while I work!

- Laura