How NOT to garden on your balcony

We have a small balcony off of our kitchen. It's about 5' x 5' and has a corner, so we have 2 ledges (nice!). I purchased some railing planters and some flowers to spruce things up a bit around here. T.J. hauled up the 2.5 cu ft of potting soil, and it was beautiful out, so I figured it was time to get down to business.

Since I have a small child that needs supervision, I first thought I'd plant on the patio with the door to the kitchen open, so I could here him. But it was quite windy out and it seemed I'd make a big mess out there, so I figured I'd just do it in the kitchen and sweep up the floor afterward.
I failed to close the door. Yes, I am an idiot. Gusting wind + 3rd story + open door + potting soil = dirt on every surface in the kitchen. D'oh! To add insult to injury, Joseph was quite intrigued by the goings on in the kitchen and came to investigate, coating himself in it, and eating it (of course).


Note to self: Always buy organic soil in the future even if it's not for edible plants.

Then he took off for the living room, dragging the dirt through there as well. As I went to head him off, I climbed over the new baby gate, stepped on a mother effing plastic ball and fell. Ironically T.J. and I had just debated who'd be the first to go down over that thing. I lost.


On the bright side, my kitchen got a nice deep cleaning - floorboards and all, and the living room did, too. Just in time for mom's group today.