It's kind of ironic to me that I decided to start gardening while living in an apartment. We've lived in houses for the last 5 years, and I have talked about gardening in our backyards, but always found a reason to wait another year. Maybe the safety net of starting small and inexpensively is what inspired me to actually commit this year! We decided to grow flowers first, and then I was determined to grow tomatoes, lots of tomatoes. James goes through at least one, sometimes two pints of tomatoes a week- organic nonthelesss, and each pint of organic cherry tomatoes at WalMart is $4. I figured we could at least try to grow our own, and if we failed, well, it would be better than never trying at all! The experience has been fun and inspiring and has cultivated a desire in my heart to have a "hand" in everything that we eat. I have high hopes for our future backyard, that much is sure!
Last month, after the last frost, we started our patio garden. We started the seeds for organic cherry tomatoes indoors in February. By the beginning of April, they looked like this:
I felt bad for planting so many seeds, because we ended up keeping only 4 plants out of that tray- I didn't know how well they would do and they all thrived!
James helped a lot, and enjoyed playing with the sprouts that were left behind.
Helping Mommy put potting soil in the pots:
We transplanted our tomato plants into the red pots, and also planted fresh thyme, lavender, basil and rosemary. I highly recommend that every chef have their own supply of fresh potted herbs. It costs $3-$4 a plant, and they keep on growing and giving. We've love using generous amounts of fresh herbs in our favorite pasta dishes and breads- the difference from dried herbs is undeniable!
We added bell peppers and two basil plants, and kept only the two strongest tomato starters.
This is our big baby. She's growing dark cherry tomatoes, and is a good container tomato plant. She grows at least 1/2 inch a night! She is flowering, and we are excited to see some fruit soon!
James loves to help water the plants and is getting good at not picking the flowers or removing the tomato cages.
Since our veggies are organic, we've been using
Medina Orange Oil (found at Lowe's) to keep bugs away. It is all natural, safe for cleaning wood furniture (as a substitute for Pledge), and it smells like oranges! Unfortunately, fruit gnats think it smells good too, and I'm not sure what we'll do to get rid of them, but so far, they seem to just enjoy the soil.
Having a small patio garden has made apartment living feel a little bit less institutional and reminds me that we really can be in control of the food we choose to eat, if we really want to, and if we're willing to toil after it.
