Deck Gardening 2024: Heirloom Tomatoes from Seed

  

 Have you priced seeds recently? I was shocked when I went shopping for them this spring. The prices have doubled and, in some cases, tripled over what I paid last year. Generally speaking, I don’t plant a lot of things by seed because it takes longer to get to the harvest. But I also find that unless I want to pay top dollar for specific seeds because plants aren't readily available at local garden centers, I need to come up with a better alternative…and I have. Harvest my own!

 Case in point, these beautiful heirloom tomatoes. I love heirloom tomatoes, not just for taste, but also visual appeal, and I love that there’s a history behind them. These beautiful tomatoes pictured came from Melissa’s Produce. I used them in this salad. While I was slicing them for that salad, I pulled out some of the seeds and set them aside to dry. Two days later, I planted them, and within a week they had sprouted, and with great gusto, I might add. (I'm still kicking myself for failing to harvest seeds from the yellow tomato.).

 

I cannot tell you how happy I was to see these little tomato plants coming up in the pots on my deck. Will they reach fruition this year? Who knows, but I will certainly have a wonderful time growing them, and I will keep you posted as to what happens.

Since that time I have planted seeds from an all red heirloom tomato, as well as a charentais melon that I also got from Melissa’s Produce. All of these are organically grown, so I know the seeds are going to be free of toxins, and these are the most comfortable I feel growing and eating.

Alstroemeria update.

They are thriving! A fuchsia petunia self-seeded beneath them, so it is quite a lovely display.

  “Who plants a seed beneath the sod and waits to see believes in God.” 

-- Anonymous

Deck Gardening 2024: Compost Bins

 

First of all, I tried the countertop compost bin that is generally designed to gather up the days (or weeks, depending upon how often you cook) scraps to be dumped into a larger bin. Despite all of the favorable reviews, this did not work for me. The problem I had with this is that, over time, it starts to smell, no matter how many times you change that filter. In addition, it can also drawn gnats, and that’s disgusting, so I threw mine out.

Photo: Amazon

Deck, balcony, and patio gardeners have space at a premium, and therefore have to be careful in planning what they intend to grow. Plants can outgrow their spaces in no time, so you don’t want to overcrowd. If you have too many things in one pot, nothing is going to do well.

Your crops are also not going to do well if you repeat plant in the same pot without rotating (Yes, there is a need to rotate crops even in pots.), or if you fail to enrich the soil with each year. With this in mind, one thing that you should dedicate space for is a compost bin. These have come a long way since those big, bulky things that people used to have in their backyards, or, failing that, a compost pile. For those of us with no room for piles (and I’ll just leave that there) the next thing is a compost bin where you can turn fruit and vegetable scraps into a wonderful rich soil. I have tried a number of them with mixed results.

Photo: Amazon

I then got a small compost bin to keep in the garage. Anytime I cook I always have a garbage bowl at hand for scraps (Never, and I cannot emphasize this enough, use meat or dairy scraps.) that I put into the compost bin. The reason that I bought this particular one was that it had a spigot on the bottom for “compost tea,” i.e. the runoff, or byproduct of the compost. Rich in nutrients, it can be mixed with water and used on your plants as a fertilizer; it is wonderful stuff. The trouble is, I never got any compost tea. With this design, however, what I did get was a door that popped off, and compost that rained down onto my feet, after which, I spent the rest of the day shoveling it back into the compost bin, and scrubbing my feet. After this happened three times it occurred to me that, again, despite favorable reviews, perhaps this was not the composter of my dreams.

Photo: Amazon

The one I finally settled on, and highly recommend is this one. It has a small footprint, has a narrow rather than bulbous design, and a door that slides into a channel so that there is no way it can pop off and dump compost onto your feet. It is on the small side, so the perfect choice for a household of one or two, but perhaps not large enough for household of three or more people.

One of the best things that you can do for yourself and the planet is to compost your scraps. You can use teabags, loose tea, coffee grounds, a sprinkling of wood ash from your fireplace (if you burn untreated wood), and all of the fruit and vegetable scraps that you end up with after working in your kitchen. Turning that into black gold is an absolute wonder, and your plants will love you for it.

 GARLIC UPDATE: Harvested!

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Deck Gardening 2024: Growing Alstroemeria

 

It’s important, when you have limited space and/or a limited number of containers in which to plant, that you plan your garden carefully. Pay attention to what you use the most when you’re in your kitchen, and grow those things. Don’t allow your head to be turned by something that will take up space and that you’re not going to use. That said, I always save one large plant pot for something experimental every year. I will say that most of the time my experiments fail.

 This year, because this is one of my favorite flowers, I decided to pick up the second to last Alstroemeria that I saw on a high shelf at the local garden center. It was nearly $30, so I hesitated a good bit before I finally put it in my cart. I have long been curious as to how these grow, if I can keep it growing, and of course, the big thing is if it returns the following year because it is a perennial. My interest was in doing pink and white flowers on the deck this year with a touch of purple. The only color of Alstroemeria they had was this peach and white with a yellow center. I will let you know how things progress. Fingers crossed it thrives, and I have beautiful cut flowers all summer long. 

What would you like to experimentally grow this year?

UPDATE: Isn’t the garlic progressing nicely?