Porch Gardening

[wyld_dandelyon]

So, I've been meaning to take a picture of the second floor of my front porch, which is currently home to all but one of the biggest tomato plants I've got this year. (I got two planted out in the yard; only one of those has survived.)

Anyway, Milwaukee is currently engulfed in a heat wave, so I've been going out every day to water the upstairs tomatoes, and I finally remembered to take some pictures.



They're still awfully young for the time of year, but being in pots means I can bring them inside when frost threatens.

The pots all have pumice rocks on top of the dirt because our kitties are allowed out on the porch, and they're perfectly happy to dig in just about any dirt.  Rough-textured rocks, on the other hand, aren't so much fun.

The other feature worth mentioning is that I can indulge in garden decorations that would, sadly, be stolen if I put them out in the yard.  Yay for purple butterflies!



So, here's hoping the bees are fertilizing my tiny flowers, and I will have tomatoes!

Comments

[lb-lee.livejournal.com]

Your porch garden looks so nice! I hope to have a garden of my own when we come back from our trip. I'd love to have basil, tomatoes, and other yummy things! Right now I just have an aloe vera.

--Sneak

[wyld-dandelyon.livejournal.com]

Thank you!

Basil needs a lot of sun, but not a lot of space. Tomatoes get big; I have a big house so I'm not worried about that. I hope you can have a garden of your own!

[queenoftheskies.livejournal.com]

What a beautiful garden! I've considered balcony gardening every year, but I never get started in time.

[wyld-dandelyon.livejournal.com]

I know how hard it is to get things started. It seems hard to remember to start seedlings when it's all frozen outside and you're only home while it's dark outside.

[laylalawlor.livejournal.com]

Oh, this looks really lovely! :) I love looking at pictures of people's gardens. My tomatoes are already dead of an early frost; so sad, but the price for living in Alaska, I guess.

You might know this already, but you can encourage your tomato flowers to self-fertilize by lightly tapping or shaking the flower clusters. I do this with my greenhouse tomatoes because they don't get very many bees in there. I'm not sure if it's entirely necessary, but they do set tomatoes, so I'm not going to stop!

[wyld-dandelyon.livejournal.com]

Thank you.

That's a good point for fertilizing in the winter. Winter-fresh tomatoes would be lovely. I'll have to get something resembling a grow light, however...

[catwithpen.livejournal.com]

Pretty! I like the butterflies.

[wyld-dandelyon.livejournal.com]

Thanks. Me too!

They are just from Menards, not special, but I am enjoying them.

[msstacy13.livejournal.com]

Nice pix. Thank you.

If I live in this apartment long enough,
I might try gardening on the roof next door.

Maybe you could resort to artificial pollination?

[seekerval.livejournal.com]

Very nice balcony garden. I didn't manage to plant anything this year. Not even my usual tub of pansies. No Spring has that kind of affect on me. Good luck with getting your tomatoes to bear fruit.

[wyld-dandelyon.livejournal.com]

I'm sure some will survive the winter, and can go in the garden next year. The one I overwintered before got HUGE in the yard the next summer.

[xjenavivex.livejournal.com]

Good luck with the tomato plants!

[wyld-dandelyon.livejournal.com]

Thank you!

[red-trillium.livejournal.com]

Those are quite small for the time of year but yes, with pots you can bring them in if the weather takes a turn for the worse. You can also cover them with plastic if the nights are going to be cool. Good luck with the gardening!

[wyld-dandelyon.livejournal.com]

Plastic is possible, I suppose, if a frost is only possible. If it's definite, however, I don't trust Wisconsin not to provide a deep frost. We'll have to see how it goes.

How are your gardening dreams coming along this year?

[red-trillium.livejournal.com]

Gardening is going slowly this year, it's been a cold spring. I've got some tomato seedlings that have come up but still too cold for my watermelon, squash & cucumber plants to come up yet :( I've got them all in small pots in our kitchen window so hopefully will see some movement on them soon. When it warms up (hopefully in the next few weeks) I'll put the tomatoes out into their regular pots.

[wyld-dandelyon.livejournal.com]

Here's hoping we both end up with tomatoes from our garden. We stopped in to visit friends today on the way back from a shopping trip, and she gave me some tomatoes from her garden. Yum!

[red-trillium.livejournal.com]

Agreed! I've got some of my favorite "Big Rainbow" tomatoes. I planted a couple last year but the seedlings failed. This year I've got 6 strong seedlings to choose from. I've also got some Pink Brandywine, which I haven't had yet but am looking forward to eating.

Yum, I really like fresh tomatoes. And with the Aussies now sending over irradiated ones looks like I'll have to forego them in the winter unless they are hothouse NZ grown ones (which this year got up to $13NZ per kilo-- about $10US for 2.2 lbs; one year they were up to $15NZ per kilo).