Green tomatoes and swamps

I had hoped to alternate between gardening and baking posts, but I was feeling a bit under the weather on Sunday (my usual baking day), and only managed some chocolate chip oatmeal peanut butter cookies and a lemon poppyseed bundt cake for a co-worker's birthday. Unfortunately I took no pictures of either - the processes or the final product. I will assert, however, that they were tasty.

However, Sunday was an exciting day for the garden - I found my first tomatoes on my Sweet 'n Neat plant, and today I found more on my mysterious middle ground plant (aka not Heirloom)! They look lovely and firm and I am most excited to watch them ripen!

Sunday's first glimpse!

This evening (Thursday). So many! Please don't die before you ripen, I want to eat you.

The newest tomato! On the mysterious plant. You know, I have the tag for this plant - it's just out of reach and I am too lazy to lean out the window and get it. Maybe I want to be surprised. Yes, that's it.

There has been a lull in the strawberries, with only one tasty berry last week. However, there are now several small white berries that should be ready in the next week. I am still visiting Haymarket every week for fresh fruit and vegetables, unfortunately. I think in order to use my own fruits for baking, I would need a significantly larger space. But they are a lovely addition to my breakfast!

On Tuesday, I officially gave up on my questionable container, with two strawberry plants, the pepper plant and the herbs. I walked to Trader Joe's and bought another set of herbs (the same ones - sage, rosemary, and thyme, again tempted to buy some parsley just to round out Scarborough Fair even though I rarely use it in cooking).

So sad looking. You can see the spillage in the top left corner. I'm not sure why the strawberry leaves have turned red, but I'm sure it wasn't a good reason. The rosemary that resembles a three month old Christmas tree is barely visible in the bottom right.

This evening, I got home at a reasonable hour and decided to replant. The container was in much worse shape than I realized. The soil had the consistency of a waterbed - moving the container caused waves throughout the surface. It was also RIDICULOUSLY heavy - my last five weeks of exercising had not prepared me to try to haul a dirt-filled container laden with liquid through my small window. I managed to get it in with only some splashing over the side (sorry neighbors three floors down - hope you don't actually use that little grill much. Or at least that you keep it well covered). I threw out the herbs and pepper plant immediately - they were obviously beyond saving.

The three holes where the herbs had been. When I pulled them out, it was a geyser/volcano effect. I had water bubbling up for several minutes. It was a little grotesque but also mesmerizing. I kept waiting for Ludo to explain that rocks are friends.

The whole container smelled like fresh manure (if you've been so fortunate as to experience that aroma), and I had no idea how to fix it. I want to try to save the two strawberry plants, if possible, as I have no replacements, but they desperately needed to be dried out. I tried soaking up the water with paper towels, but it quickly became apparent that I was using a bandaid on a gushing wound. It was about as effective as me trying to block LeBron James (I don't follow basketball as a rule, but there are slim pickings on network television this evening). So then I tried adding some new potting soil. I have a small bag left of unused soil - not enough to fill the container, and I had no place to throw out the water-soaked soil anyway. Also a poor solution - the new, drier soil just floated on top of the soup, and I was adding weight to the already unmanageable container. The one real puzzle in all of this is that the container is the exact same one as the one where I have my four strawberry plants, which have had no soup problems. Why is this one having such problems!? This bothers the scientist in me.

I threw in the new plants - herbs from Trader Joe's and one of my bell pepper seedlings - and started to haul it back and just hope for the best when I had a brilliant idea. Ok, more of a Hail Mary. I thought maybe the water wasn't getting out (even though, as stated previously, this is the exact same container as another one I own, from which water apparently has no issues escaping). So, how to get it out? I decided to try punching a hole in the bottom of the container. Unfortunately I have not a single nail in my entire apartment, so I ended up using a penknife to bore a hole in the bottom. Not recommended - the penknife is at least 10 years old and I'd prefer not to think about how easily a dull knife that doesn't snap into place could take off a finger or at least reach a tendon.  However, I was rewarded with lovely brown water that began dripping all over my kitchen floor. I made a second hole before hauling it back through the window (more spillage - I actually thought I lost a strawberry plant, but it hung on). This involved much cursing and a tense moment in which I realized a wet tiled floor does not provide good traction when trying to lift sixty pounds entirely with my arms. If the entire container had been filled with lead it would have been easier - at least it would have been solid and not sloshing around. Ugh. If they die this time, I'm leaving them out there. Maybe the next tenant will be a champion weightlifter.

Watching it on the balcony I didn't see any water coming out and I worried that the holes had gotten clogged. Then I realized there is no reason the holes need to be on the bottom (which was quite difficult to access anyway). So I put two holes on the side near the bottom, followed by another two and another two (I get slightly impatient - dry out already!). They are currently all dripping away, and I will check in the morning to see if I can tell a difference in the waterbed consistency. Here's hoping!

The new plants, back out on the balcony. You can make out one of the side holes I made in the bottom left. Looking at it now, I realized I planted the pepper plant WAY too close to the herbs. Of course, this will only be a problem if they all survive -the jury is still out on this, but I'm not betting on it.

PS - I've switched from the NBA to America's Test Kitchen. PBS, I love you and can I borrow your kitchen?

The error of my ways

In my last post, I mentioned that I had done absolutely no research into balcony or container gardening. I had taken note, when purchasing seeds, of the graphic of a friendly green check mark in a pot that indicated the plant could survive in a container. Other than that - nada. I chose plants and seeds based on childhood memories, whims, and attractive colors.

I translated this graphic as "Why, yes, I will grow beautifully on your balcony and produce bountiful fruit for you to feast on. Please enjoy."

So yesterday I did a google search on patio/balcony/container gardening, both in search of information and perhaps some other blogs that I could use as resources (and as a procrastination tool to avoid setting up a Western blot). What I found was that in growing plants for less than a week, I had already committed several cardinal sins. Here are some suggestions/rules that I've broken:

1. Use containers made of natural material. One blog claims that natural materials (eg, clay or wood) are best. I, of course, went with the cheap plastic option. And chose a dark green because I liked it better than the burnt sienna color that looked like it was trying to be clay. Turns out that's wrong, as well (see below).

Cheap plastic, dark green, no drainage system installed. Three wrongs in one choice - if I were a football team, I'd have to punt. Luckily gardening and football don't invite many comparisons.

2. Choose light-colored pots. This is to avoid overheating of the soil during the hotter summer months. Yep, dark green will definitely retain the heat better. I chose...poorly. (Name that movie!)

This blog got it right. Apparently they went all fancy and researched things beforehand.

3. Water daily. Wait, what? Haven't I killed every houseplant I have ever owned because of this exact issue? And yet I found several websites that claim this is the best way to take care of your patio garden.

4. Don't waterlog the soil or roots. Well, now I'm just confused.

5. Use fertilizer in dilute amounts often/daily. Then why does it say on the bottle to use it every 7-10 days? Are they lying?

I'm not lying - right on the bottle, for garden/patio. What am I missing? If anything, shouldn't the product be trying to get me use it more often, so I will go through it quickly and buy more?

6. Make sure the plants have full sun exposure all day. The minimum they need is six hours per day. This one I am quite paranoid about. Unfortunately I only have one place to put my plants, so it's not a multiple choice option. I have carefully noted that my plants get their first peak of sun at approximately 8:30 am, but I haven't been able to be home in the afternoon to see when the sun moves to the other side of the building and the shade sets in. I do believe it's well into the afternoon, but I plan to stalk the sun this weekend to get a time (the forecast is for rain, making this a moot exercise - or a "moo" one, as Joey would say).

7. Put your plants on a south facing wall. The logic behind this isn't stated, but I believe it's related to the above rule, to maximize their sun exposure.

8. Have a good drainage system in place. I have none, which I suspect doesn't qualify as "good."

See, Ma? No drainage! (All of the boxes/pots do at least have holes in the bottom). But most websites suggested rocks or plastic bottles or pipes. None of that fancy stuff here!

9. Add mulch. One site actually recommended "top-dressing" with mulch, which I'm not sure what they mean, but it sounds inappropriate for polite company.

10. Use gloves with potting soil. This one was on the bag of soil itself. But I forgot to buy a pair and was too impatient to wait. So far, no strange red welts or bumps, but I'm keeping an eye out.

Yep, I just flat out ignored that one.

So there you have it. Less than a week into my garden, and I'm heading down ten different directions, all wrong to some degree. Who's excited!?