A Little Green Under The Gills

I am unsure if this is a sign of old age... or perhaps... I have deep rooted needs to create more of a chaos for self than I had realised, BUT... I am in the midst of trying to grow a salad box.

Let me explain.
I was in Europe (yet again) and a met a travel mate who is quite into gardening. Thanks to this mate, I am quite determined to grow a flowerbox (something rectangular in which you can put in soil and for the un-cursed, plants will grow.) Typically, flowerboxes are placed on wrought iron grills outside apartment windows, facing the street. This way, pedestrians and motorists passing by can look up and be greeted by a pretty sight. It is also commonly used to flank the doors of small Bed&Breakfast hotels.

For me, the flower box is to be placed on the common corridor. It was bought more for the functional purpose of limited space than aesthetics. I had this berserk idea whilst shivering in my winter wonderland, that I would like to grow a 'edible' flower box, in which vegetables would go into a salad quite nicely. Things like Tomatoes, cucumbers, lettuce, small white onions, etc.

I managed to kill my first batch of tomatoes, cucumbers and small white onions, no surprise there. The cotton plant seems to have survived though I reckon it will die a horrid death if I don't find a way to give it direct sunlight soon enough. Determined to disprove my non-green finger , I have just finished starting another batch of seedlings, this time using another medium from the first batch. I have since determined that the first batch died from a fertilizer assault. Apparently seedlings cannot be fertilized else they all wilt. Uh huh... wish packets of soil and seed had that written as a precaution in their labelling.

For now... wish me luck and pray that my kill count for plants don't go higher in the next two weeks.