My garden (pic heavy)

marie-p

TCS Member
Thread starter
Top Cat
Joined
Mar 1, 2005
Messages
2,568
Purraise
1
Location
Unfashionable end of the western spiral arm of the
So I live in a small one bedroom apartment on the second floor but at least I have a balcony... so I decided to grow a little vegetable garden!
I tried last year but I wasn't very successful... probably because the containers I had were too small for the plants. So this year I added some larger containers and so far, my plants seem happy!

Here is my garden:



The vegetables:

Eggplant:


Tomato:






Bell Peppers:





Miniature bell peppers:



Lettuce:





The herbs:

Cilantro:


Mint:


Two kinds of basil:
 

deedeemay

TCS Member
Top Cat
Joined
Jan 1, 2008
Messages
2,456
Purraise
1
Location
South Coast, UK
Wow what a variety! Wish we could grow veggies on our garden, but the dog normally pulls up all our plants and eats them
We did have a patch in our garden before he arrived though...
 

tallulah

TCS Member
Alpha Cat
Joined
Sep 20, 2007
Messages
623
Purraise
1
Location
U.K
Very nice
I have heard of eggplant, but never seen one, nice pictures.
 

u8myufo

TCS Member
Alpha Cat
Joined
Nov 13, 2006
Messages
648
Purraise
1
Location
Bath UK
Lovely jubley, you cant get any fresher. I am looking forward to moving to our new house this weekend, the people that were there before had a section of garden 20ft by 50ft dedicated to vegetables. It also has a south facing greenhouse. So when we are settled in its out to the garden for me
 

greenvillegal

TCS Member
Alpha Cat
Joined
Jul 25, 2007
Messages
594
Purraise
1
Location
Bossier City, LA
Very nice! I live in an apartment too and decided to try my first hand at gardening as well this year. My cilantro died, because I didn't know that it only lasts about 6 weeks then dies off anyway. So use it now! I grew some tomato plants from seeds and they are now about 3 feet tall! I am so blown away. I don't have any fruit yet but the flowers are so close to coming out I just know it. I am really looking forward to having my own tomatoes this year. I hope they grow soon.

How big is your tomato container? Mine's only about 2 or 3 gallons I think. They seem to be thriving though.

How often do you water your tomatoes? I am on an every other day schedule right now but keeping a close eye on them.

Do you have a stake or a cage holding them up?
 

rapunzel47

TCS Member
Veteran
Joined
Jul 20, 2003
Messages
30,725
Purraise
8
Location
Lotus Land
Originally Posted by Tallulah

Very nice
I have heard of eggplant, but never seen one, nice pictures.
I see you're in the UK - you may know it as aubergine.
 
  • Thread Starter Thread Starter
  • #10

marie-p

TCS Member
Thread starter
Top Cat
Joined
Mar 1, 2005
Messages
2,568
Purraise
1
Location
Unfashionable end of the western spiral arm of the
Originally Posted by greenvillegal

How big is your tomato container? Mine's only about 2 or 3 gallons I think. They seem to be thriving though.
It's a big 60L plastic tub (how many gallons is that?) It's probably bigger than needed, but I figured it was better to err on the larger side.

How often do you water your tomatoes? I am on an every other day schedule right now but keeping a close eye on them.
I water almost every day, but not very much. I will probably have to water more (and/or more often) when the weather gets more hot and dry.

Do you have a stake or a cage holding them up?
My tomato plants (both of them) and my bell pepper plant are in cages. The tomatoes are getting taller than the cage already.


Originally Posted by greenvillegal

Make sure you look up a fantastic eggplant parmesan recipe! I LOVE eggplant.
I'm still not sure if the eggplant will work at all (it's my first time trying, and the container is smaller than the tomatoes') but if I can grow some, I'll probably roast them. I LOVE roasted eggplant
 

greenvillegal

TCS Member
Alpha Cat
Joined
Jul 25, 2007
Messages
594
Purraise
1
Location
Bossier City, LA
Well it sure looks like you're doing great to me! I anticipate having tomatoes in 1-2 more weeks. Hope to post some pics!! Thanks for sharing yours!
 

mom of 4

TCS Member
Top Cat
Joined
Jul 22, 2006
Messages
1,282
Purraise
12
Location
BajaOklahoma, should be 200 miles north
Did you put watering crystals in the soil? The ones that you soak in water, they get all plump and slimey, then mix in the dirt. They absorb water everytime you water the plants and then slowly releases the moisture back in the soil. It really helps with plants that are sensitive to water conditions. We've even done it to the new shrubs.
 

fwan

TCS Member
Top Cat
Joined
Dec 5, 2004
Messages
13,279
Purraise
2
Location
Australia
Lucky you!

I had to forget this year about planting as we are leaving soon I really do miss it, will have to wait till next year, although when we move into our house i plan on getting a lemon tree
 

pippy-pops

TCS Member
Adult Cat
Joined
Sep 15, 2006
Messages
242
Purraise
2
Location
Essex, United Kingdom
Oooohhhh those look wonderfully healthy!

We recently moved into a house from a flat (apartment) and the garden was empty - no flower beds, dead grass... just bare! I was sold on the house but my gosh the smallish garden needed alot of TLC to get it to where I wanted it to be!

My stepson asked if he could grow some veg.
I thought "pmfffff yes as if I'm the gardening type... they'll die!" but I went ahead and prepared the patch properly, put down the right mulch and compost and went out to get the little baby plants with Harry one afternoon! We came back with... Tomato's, baby corn, brussell sprouts, spinach and cauliflower! All are doing fantastically except I'm yet to see any buds
I am fighting with the slugs and snails though as we are doing this organically! Therefore no pesticides except natural remedies! Just how many eggs am I supposed to eat to crush the shells to keep the bad mean slugs away?


Well the small veg patch has now grown even bigger because I've not just stopped at those few I bought earlier in the season... I've now gone and stupidly planted peas, runner beans and herbs as well!
I don't know why I do it to myself! SS is only at ours over a weekend so numpty here is the one who has to look after them! But I secretly love it! shhhhhh don't tell anyone!

My neighbour has also popped her head round this past week and commented on how pretty my flower bedsare... I didn't mean to colour co-ordinate the flowers but they've all seem to come out in shades of purple, pink and mauve!!! All the flowers are now starting to bud and flower and the garden is really starting to take on a very pretty and inviting place to be!

This weekend, I'm going to put up a willow screen down the one side of the garden as there is no proper fence up on that side and although my neighbours are great, our kids and the kids on the other side of then, tend to jump the fence, walk through the middle neighbours gardend and into our and across again when they want to go home! And the parents of the other children got a little telling off
one weekend when they did this 38 times in an hour and a little path started appearing across the middle neighbours grass!
 

natalie_ca

TCS Member
Top Cat
Joined
Jul 2, 2006
Messages
21,136
Purraise
223
Location
Winnipeg, Manitoba, Canada
Wow! You did a great job with that.
I wish I had a balcony. I'd love to be able to plant some flowers and have a miny garden.

I'm hoping to move later this year, or at least by spring. In addition to a good view, the 2 criteria that I have is that the apartment have AC and a balcony.

There is an apartment building across the river from me that I had been considering, but they went and change the building to one of "air exchange" and walled off the balconies and put in glass windows that you can't open! I could never live in a place that didn't have windows that could be opened to let in fresh air and a nice breeze.

Hopefully next year I'll be able to post pictures of a balcony garden too!
 

jellybella

TCS Member
Top Cat
Joined
Feb 10, 2007
Messages
2,314
Purraise
3
Location
UPNY
Looks good! I have a similar city garden on my back stairs (we have a postage stamp of a back yard--mostly garage, so all gardening is in containers). My basil grew like crazy after we had our warm snap (90s for several consecutive days). I am now in the process of pulling off those pretty flowers so that it will keep making yummy leaves


That eggplant looks great. I'll have to try that next year
 
  • Thread Starter Thread Starter
  • #20

marie-p

TCS Member
Thread starter
Top Cat
Joined
Mar 1, 2005
Messages
2,568
Purraise
1
Location
Unfashionable end of the western spiral arm of the
Originally Posted by Mom of 4

Did you put watering crystals in the soil? The ones that you soak in water, they get all plump and slimey, then mix in the dirt. They absorb water everytime you water the plants and then slowly releases the moisture back in the soil. It really helps with plants that are sensitive to water conditions. We've even done it to the new shrubs.
I have never heard of those before... but it sounds like a good idea! I will look into it.

Originally Posted by SwampWitch

Fantastic! I love container gardens! I'd forgotten how pretty the eggplant plant is... what a lovely garden you have.
Yes, that eggplant is really pretty. I should have taken a picture of it when the first flower bloomed. Eggplant flowers are so pretty!! Hopefully I should have more soon.
One thing that worries me is that there are often little bugs on the eggplant. The plant doesn't seem too bothered, but I don't know if it will end up being a problem.
 
Top