Motivated by Kalyn Denny’s post ’bout caprese salad,” I decided to start a balcony tomato garden!
First stop: The Santa Monica Farmers’ Market, where I picked up a high country tomato plant from a local farmer (right). “You got lucky!” he said, and pointed out that my lil $3 purchase actually had 3 separate tomato plants in it — so I paid just a buck per plant! He advised me to separate the plants out and plant them v. deeply.
Second stop: Whole Foods, to pick up a couple pots — I found biodegradable ones that look stylish too! — and some compost.
Next, I tried to separate out the tomato plants as gently as possible — They were really enmeshed together though — then put each one in its own pot.
Wish me luck with these — because my last tomato plant got strangely twisty. For encouragement, I read Jul of This Non-American Life’s post about her balcony-grown tomato — which has a cute lil nose! If I can successfully get my tomato plants to thrive on my balcony, I’ll try branching out. Soli Deo Gloria at Heart and Hearth says lemongrass is easy to grow on her balcony.
If things don’t go too well though, that’s okay — I’m actually encouraged by Kate at The Root’s confession about her balcony gardening troubles, just cuz it’s comforting knowing I’m not the only plant killer:
The carrots seedlings, such as they are, one centimeter tall, are yellowing, the chard has somehow mummified into tough little inch-long shoots, the lavender I had such high hopes for seems to think it has fall foliage, Freya’s little primrose plant is suffering through yet another cycle of flood and drought, and my Brandywine tomato is straining to produce its 20th leaf. It’s nothing good.
Got a balcony garden of your own — or thinking of starting one? Then bookmark Grow Your Own, “a twice-a-month blogging event that celebrates the foods we grow or raise ourselves and the dishes we make using our homegrown products” organized by Andrea at Andrea’s Recipes.
[Crossposted at BlogHer]
We picked our first tomato this morning. They’re slow ripening, we think, because of all the smoke from the 1000 forest fires that hung in the air here in Mendoland for well over a month. But it was yummy. Had my share (our community has 3 veggie/vegan veggie lovers) Louisa and I went to our local (Redwood Valley) farmers’ market to trade walnuts for some more tomatos, and we just spent the afternoon making salsa…yummy 2. We don’t have a balcony garden, but it’s so cool to see gardening happening everywhere these “get more greener” days. Yay for Siel’s balcony garden!
Comment by EcoLarry — August 24, 2008 @ 4:33 pm
woops…forgot to add that I had my share of the first tomato on a swiss cheese sand, with Armenian cucs from our garden. Now why did I just ramble so much about veggies?
Comment by EcoLarry — August 24, 2008 @ 4:40 pm
Thanks for mentioning Grow Your Own! I used to grow tomatoes, peppers, and herbs in pots on my balcony in Chicago. They didn’t give the same yield as plants in the ground, but did pretty well. Keep at it! Container gardening does work, you just have to tend the plants a little more.
Comment by Andrea — August 24, 2008 @ 6:08 pm
Good luck! I’m sending positive tomato vibes your way.
If things don’t work out with these tomatoes, don’t get discouraged! Gardening is always a learning experience. There is a saying that I really like, “You don’t really know a plant until you’ve killed it three times.”
Comment by Fern — August 24, 2008 @ 10:27 pm
We have a huge yard but really do not have the time for a garden garden….so planted some tomatoes in pots (my neighbor kept saying that they will not grow)…HAHAHA…also saved the seeds from some bell peppers and planted those too, also planted some around the deck. We have had LOADS of tomatoes, and some peppers. The peppers in the pots have done better than the one in the ground. We even had a surprise plant grow out of the tomato pot….CUKES…
It was so nice to eat a salad with a cuke from the garden..and then go outside and pick a fresh tomato and pepper from the garden…YUMMMMMM..
GOOD LUCK
Comment by Jamie — August 25, 2008 @ 6:57 am
Thanks for the good wishes, gardeners. As of now, all 3 tomato plants are still alive –
Comment by Siel — August 25, 2008 @ 1:35 pm
Well I’m commenting below all the spammers, but I just wanted to point out that it’s actually much harder to grow vegetables in pots than in the ground. It’s so easy for them to either dry out or not have enough nutrients or something. You really have to watch them carefully.
Comment by GardenGrrrl — September 1, 2008 @ 5:05 pm