Growing a Porch Garden: The 2013 Edition
So last year I had my first porch garden. It was somewhat successful, but I was a little disappointed in some of the plants (I’m looking at you cucumber). This year I wasn’t sure I would even have the chance to try again, as our porch doesn’t get the best sunlight. My mom came to visit for my birthday and said she thought it was worth a try based on the early sunlight that we get. As the saying goes, Mom does always know best.
Here’s what we started with a few weeks ago:
From left to right all purchased from an organic vendor at the farmer’s market: Red pepper, cilantro, rosemary, thyme and basil
A pre-started tomato plant (I learned my lesson last year. They take too long for my patience level when grown on a balcony from little baby sized)
A tomato plant I got from the farmer’s market. They said it was a good variety for patio growing… we shall see…
Left to right: eggplant (small ones), two types of cucumbers, and a yellow bell pepper plant all from the store.
It’s been a little under 3 weeks and here is where we were yesterday:
Tomato is growing nicely… and extreme closeup:
We have our first tomato! We’ll see how this goes but it looks like it could be a big one.
The market tomato plant is growing well. The stalk looks really thick and healthy and if you look in the center you can see our first flower (and hopefully future tomato).
The herbs and red pepper are all doing well. The basil looks a little weak right now, but thats just because this was post pruning. I learned all about pruning basil for maximum growth last year, so let’s hope this year works just as well. The cilantro is growing like crazy and the Mr took some to put in his salsa yesterday. I think those are firmly on their way to flavoring many a summer meal.
