Apartment Garden Blues (Blog): My Cherry Tomatoes

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Published on Friday, May 10 2013 17:17

Written by Alexandra Martin

In last week's blog, I talked about my seed storage system. When I was going through all of my saved seeds earlier this year to see what I wanted to plant, I came across my cherry tomato seeds. Although I'm not growing any right now, all my memories of those cherry tomatoes came rushing back to me!

One cherry tomato plant I had a couple years ago produced 88 of the most delicious cherry tomatoes I’ve ever tasted. I was a bit perturbed when another gardener won first place in cherry tomatoes at the county fair that year – I was sure I could’ve won if I’d entered! Funny enough, the first-place winner was also from my same city. Maybe our hometown has the perfect conditions for cherry tomatoes!

Last year I took a break from counting my cherries. When I started I didn’t think my three plants would produce hundreds of tomatoes. I had to resort to giving away bunches of tomatoes and making large batches of salsas in order for all of them to be eaten. I also had to spend a lot of time in the garden battling my mortal enemies – tomato hornworm caterpillars. And you may know by now that I hate dealing with bugs in the garden. I’d find one (I do admit that they’re interesting creatures), and I’d have to call my husband over to get rid of it for me.

Organic balcony container gardening is a lot of work, but once you harvest those tasty fruits and vegetables, see your flowers bloom or attract a certain animal to your balcony, you know it’s all been worth it!

(But seriously, maybe I should enter one of my tomatoes into the fair this year!)

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Alexandra Martin is a professional writer from Southern California who grows vegetables, herbs, lots of aloe vera and one giant Boston fern in her balcony garden. She also grows dracaena, pothos and English ivy indoors. She loves traveling and birdwatching in addition to gardening.

Apartment Garden Blues (Blog): Seed Storage System

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Published on Friday, May 03 2013 17:12

Written by Alexandra Martin

You always see the advice to store seeds in a “cool, dry place” until the next planting season. Where is that cool, dry place for you? How do you keep your seeds? In their original seed packets? In a cute little box or homemade seed packet origami like in the picture to the right? Do you have a system when it comes to storing your seeds?

I keep my seeds many different ways, but they’re all located in one place: in a big Ziplock bag in my storage cabinet. I have a couple of labeled pill boxes I use to store my container plant seeds. I keep some seeds in their original seed packets so I can easily see the seed’s information – most importantly when they expire. Other seeds I’ve collected myself, and I label the bag with the year they were collected, plus any interesting notes about that plant, like where the plant originally came from. (I’ve participated in a couple of online seed exchanges and also have received seeds as gifts and like to make a note of that.) I also make a note if it’s an heirloom plant or a certain hybrid or variety, and if it grew well in my garden. It’s always fun to look through my big bag of seeds and reminisce about my past gardens with these little notes.

What’s your system for storing seeds?

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Alexandra Martin is a professional writer from Southern California who grows vegetables, herbs, lots of aloe vera and one giant Boston fern in her balcony garden. She also grows dracaena, pothos and English ivy indoors. She loves traveling and birdwatching in addition to gardening.

Apartment Garden Blues (Blog): I'm Terrible with Bugs

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Published on Friday, April 26 2013 20:57

Written by Alexandra Martin

When it comes to most aspects of gardening, I’m pretty good. I water the plants every day, fertilize them, prune them, etc. But there is one thing I just don’t do in the garden: BUGS!

I’m not sure why most women just hate bugs. What is it about them? I’m not scared of them. They just gross me out. I appreciate what some of them do (i.e., the red worms in our compost bin that turn our food scraps into black gold), but I can’t even look at them without shuddering. Luckily I have my husband to deal with the bugs in the garden. I can spot some leaf damage, call him over to investigate so he can find the culprit and squish it. If it weren’t for him, I’d just spray my plants with a vegetable-safe spray and leave them. Most of my container plants would probably get eaten up before I had a crack at them.

Are you brave when it comes to bugs and insects in the container garden?

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Alexandra Martin is a professional writer from Southern California who grows vegetables, herbs, lots of aloe vera and one giant Boston fern in her balcony garden. She also grows dracaena, pothos and English ivy indoors. She loves traveling and birdwatching in addition to gardening.