Once (only a few years ago but it seems like a long time now) I had a vegetable garden, filled with all kinds of good things for us to eat. Those days are gone, however, in part because of how much time it takes to:
- plant
- water
- weed
- do organic pest control
- harvest
What we don’t grow ourselves, we buy at the local farmers market; it’s a fair trade.
But we do miss choosing the kinds of tomatoes we really enjoy; at the farmers market you have to get what they grow. And while it is all organic and yummy, sometimes we miss the flavor of a different kind.
Last year we gave ourselves what we thought was a great idea — tomatoes in large pots for the patio. And they would have been great, too, except for last year’s tomato blight — that was airborne and that we had no advance warning was coming. The two plants we had absolutely croaked. Oh how sad that was! (The area farmers were none too happy about that, either. . . but some of them managed to salvage their plants and had tomatoes for sale most of the harvest season.)
Growing Tomatoes in Pots Isn't Hard. Photo by Cindy Read
This year over Memorial Day weekend, we took a deep breath and decided to try again. We went to Tea Town Reserve, where they were doing a plant sale fund raiser. We got a Rutgers yellow indeterminate and an heirloom beefsteak — which were not our #1 picks but good solid varieties that generally produce well under normal growing conditions. We planted them in dark loamy soil with good drainage, since in the pots they tend to dry out faster — or get waterlogged if it’s a wet summer. I’ll get photos soon and substitute them for the generic ones I’m using here.
So far, so good. The two tomatoes are growing fast and setting flowers already. They have tripled in size in just a month and look very healthy and happy where they are. Fingers crossed — with a little more luck and enough sun, we should have a wonderful crop of home-grown organic tomatoes of our own and to share with neighbors.
And the best part? It’s not back-breaking, time-consuming work! Anyone can do this. Try it! You too can enjoy fresh home-grown garden veggies — even if you don’t have a garden 🙂