Sunday, May 10, 2009

Balcony Garden

Two weeks ago I decided to plant a balcony container garden. All of my plants were bought at Gardens of Babylon in the Nashville Farmers Market. I strongly recommend this business. They have a great selection and I found the employees to be extremely knowledgeable and friendly.

I already had two flower boxes that were going unused, so I decided to fill these with herbs. Each box contains two plants. One contains cilantro and curled parsley. The other contains basil and Greek oregano. I’ve also got a couple of potted plants. I’ve got two 10” pots, one containing a rosemary plant and the other thyme.

I also have a couple of tomato plants. I chose two varieties: Bush Champions and Juliets. The Bush Champion was recommended for container gardens because the plants are only 24” tall, but can produce full size tomatoes. What I didn’t know when I bought the plant is a determinant variety. This means the plant will produce one harvest, and then may not produce another. I would have preferred an indeterminate variety, or a plant that continues to produce all season long, but I really didn’t understand the concept at the time. I’m not sure what the Juliets will end up looking like. It’s often described as being too big to put into salads without slicing, but too small to be a “slicer” tomato. It’s an indeterminate variety so it should produce all season.
All of the plants have been doing very well. I used a little cilantro in some black bean and corn burritos I made the other day. I also combined some of the rosemary with goat cheese to stuff some chicken breasts. The tomatoes are doing very well. I moved them to larger pots, added gravel to improve drainage and staked the Juliets up. After reading a few articles I decided to add some companion plants-plants that have symbiotic relationships with each other. The bush champions now share space with some chives and the Juliets now live with some mint.

Here are some pictures.





















I’m still trying to decide what to grow in the two 10” pots the tomatoes used to live in. If you have any suggestions let me know.

1 comment:

  1. you got some killer looking tomatoes.

    and that blue moped in the back is sweet

    ReplyDelete