Tomato balcony gardening
by greenlagirl

Motivated by Kalyn Denny's "If You Have Ripe Tomatoes and Fresh Basil, It's Time for Caprese Salad" post, 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.
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BlogHer Contributing Editor Siel also blogs at greenLAgirl.com.

Submitted by greenlagirl (view blog) on Sun, 08/24/2008 - 02:54

Comments

 

Hooray for growing tomatoes!

There is simply nothing like the taste of a tomato fresh from your garden. That was a smart farmer who told you to separate the plants. It looks like he also told you to cut off the bottom leaves and plant it very deeply. That makes the plant grow more quickly because tomatoes send out roots from the stem. I haven't grown tomatoes in containers, but if I did I'd probably buy some granular organic fertilizer and use a fork to mix it into the dirt. (You could still do it now, just be careful not to dig down to the roots.) Then just water every time the dirt is completely dried out, and you should have tomatoes in a few months!

BTW, my brother shops at the Santa Monica Farmer's Market and I always go there with him whenever I visit. You're lucky to live by such an awesome market.

Kalyn Denny
Kalyn's Kitchen

Submitted by Kalyn Denny on Sun, 08/24/2008 - 06:28
 

Thanks for the tips! I used

Thanks for the tips! I used to have some basil but it died when I forgot to water it :( Will do better next time! Does yr bro go to the market on Main or on Arizona?

 

green LA girl

Submitted by greenlagirl on Sun, 08/24/2008 - 17:47
 

P.S. Grow some basil too!

Basil is pretty easy to grow too. I just found out you can buy a bunch of basil and stick it in water and the stems will make roots. Then when you have quite a few roots established, plant it in some dirt and put it outside.

Basil is also really easy to grow from seeds. I bet in LA you could almost grow it year round.

Kalyn Denny
Kalyn's Kitchen

Submitted by Kalyn Denny on Sun, 08/24/2008 - 06:31
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