Thinking too big

This May 2-4 weekend Nyron and I plan to spend working on the house. As well as clearing out the garage in preparation for turning it into a workshop and finishing the painting (we've found a lovely hazlenut colour that already adorns our library walls) I'm hoping to find time to work on the balcony garden. Always being one for thinking ahead, I started wondering what I could do for the winter. I came up with the idea of turning my balcony into a greenhouse and started mentally designing a frame system that I could set up with metal pipes and cover with plastic sheeting that would be relatively simple to put up in the fall and take back down in the spring. That way, I'd have a year-round garden and a year-round supply of fresh vegetables.

Then, as usual, reality set in. I live in a condo-townhouse, which means I have to abide by the building management's rules. There are very strict rules about what we are allowed to make visible in the "public areas" of which the balconies are an example. We're not even allowed to hang clothes-lines. So I really can't imagine that turning my balcony into a large plastic greenhouse would go unchallenged by the powers that be. I can't wait until we win the lottery and move into a self-sustainable homestead outside of Toronto - such is the dream.

I guess I should just start thinking smaller. Like, a whole series of little greenhouses, the ones with the adjustable shelves just like the balcony-sized one in my head, but about 2 feet high. I had one of those once, years ago, which gave me the idea in the first place. How many do you think I could fit on my balcony before it's deamed "unsightly"? : )

o( )__