vegetable garden... am I too late to start?

Hi,

I decided I want to grow a few vegetables on my balcony (tomatoes, maybe cucumbers, peppers, spinach, radishes... whatever will grow, really)

Am I too late to start? I don't want to have to buy a big expensive tomato plant, just little cheap ones... will they have time to grow and give me tomatoes?

How about other vegetables?

Also, I get direct sunlight on my balcony in the morning, but only indirect sunlight / shade the rest of the day. Will it be enough?

I'm not sure Marie but have you checked out Verdant forums? That is a gardening forum owned by Anne as well I beleive

If you buy plants that have already started to grow, then they should produce in time.

I grew tomatoes in an area of my garden that got 50% shade. They grew ok. Tomatoes take about 2-2 1/2 months to grow. The small, mini tomatoes grow a bit faster, and may be easier on the balcony. Try out both kinds. The plants are pretty reasonable in price. It's totally worth a try.

Give them a descent size pot and a stick for support when they start to grow.

In canada now is a great time to plant tomatoes, as they will be ready in July or August. I'm not sure where you live, but unless it's Northern Alaska and/or there is no more chance of frost you should be fine

Here is another site that can be helpful
http://www.thegardenhelper.com/index.html

I just started planting my veg garden tonite and will continue on. With gardening veg in the shade the plants might get a bit leggy put should produce ok. If in pots you may need to fertilize a bit more. I would also turn the pots so all sides of the plant can get light. Veg like radish and lettuce are up and eatable in a short time span so you can have several crops.
My tomato plants which I always start from seed are always small but my the end of summer quite large. If you grow cucumbers can up rig up a support system so the plants can climb??

I guess I can get some tomato cages. Would those work for cucumbers too?

Now I just need to find out how deep the containers have to be for each plant. I don't have anything deeper than 8-9 inches.

Originally Posted by tierre0

Guess it really all depends on where you are located. I am in central Ontario and we haven't started planting veggies outside here yet, although our plants are started indoors. We had frost the other morning so most seasoned gardeners here wait until the beginning of June to put their plants outside. Since you are doing balcony gardening you could alway put your planters out during the day and bring them inside at night for a couple of weeks if your worried. Most gardening centers will have seedlings already started for the plants you mentioned. Good gardening.

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Thanks. Actually, I'm in Montreal... even further North than you. I guess it'll be alright. I'll get plants for tomatoes, cucumbers and maybe pepper, and some seeds for the rest. Then I'll just wait and see what grows.

We normally plant our garden on the may 24 weekend, however we have been getting frost as of late and have put it off a bit. So we will be planting the small, tomato plants we started drowing (under a grow light) about 1 month ago, along with melons, cucumbers, zuccini etc. it's not to late to plant