Tomato harvest

This season my best crop came from the tomatoes. I had tree plants and they just kept giving more and more. I had some setbacks of course, but over all the plants performed splendidly. Last year's season I only got eight tomatoes total, but this time I already got more than that out of the big tomato on the first harvest, I was very pleased. I really never expected to have so much out of them, it was great seeing that much difference. I can't wait for next year to try again.

Big ripe tomatoes ready for eating

The first plant I set up was a big red tomato which I put on the corner to give it the best sun . It grew really fast and thick and started giving flowers right away. Then, when it got a bit heavy with fruit, it slowed down a little, but after every harvest it started growing fast again.

The mini yellow tomatoes were my best success

The second one was a very rich yellow mini tomato. It was in the middle of them all and it very soon took over the spotlight. It grew very fast and so tall, that at the end, I had to tie it to the roof of the balcony. I got around 150 tomatoes from it alone which meant it was the most productive of the three plants.

This plant gave the most delicious tomatoes of all three

The last plant was a very tasty red mini tomato. It did well to, but I had a couple troubles at the beginning because the main stalk broke. The time it got to the tomato to recover delayed its crops a little and I got a bit less from it than from the orange one. It also was the one that got the most damaged from that week of drought I talked about before. Still, I had a nice crop out of it.

Ready to be picked

Because they where doing that well I wanted to measure the production so I counted and weighted every one and did the math. Taking reference from store bought tomatoes of the same kind my total crop was worth around 6000 yen (78 dollars), a very healthy sum for tree plants in a small balcony. And the best of it was that being home grown I had them all very fresh and they tasted amazing

Tomatoes are a must have for any garden

Now their season has ended and it is time to take them out. I liked how the combination of one big and two mini tomatoes worked, I might try something similar again. However I will start checking new varieties and planning what to do next year.

Any recommendations?

Summer crops

This summer was an amazing season for the edibles in my garden. All of the crops grew like crazy and even thought I got a couple setbacks there were still a lot of vegetables and fruits with every harvest. Not bad at all for a small balcony garden.

Every harvest gave me a full platter of food

I had four big harvest out the plants, and every time I got to fill a big plate with all the produce. I also got a lot of minor harvests because every time I needed herbs or more fruits all I needed to do is pick them from the balcony.

I got many fresh beans from the garden

This year there were many plants in the garden. The tomato plants were definitely my main crop, I had tree big plants, they grew a lot and gave a many fruits. I also have basil and some more herbs that took very well the summer and grew many new leaves.

The strawberries were few but good

Pumpkin flowers taste great with cheese

The chilies also gave a big crop although a bit skinny. I had my first batch of blueberries ever and a bit of strawberries. And the pumpkin, even thought it didn't fruit I got many flowers to eat.

Not bad for a very small balcony garden

It was amazing having so much fruits and vegetables, I had never grown so much food. I deeply recommend to anybody with a garden to grow at least a little corner of edibles. It is very rewarding, it saves a bit of money and it gives you very tasty fresh food to eat.

My tomato harvest

Well, I finished presenting all the plants on my garden, this time I want to continue yesterday's post about the harvest i had this year.

Remember those tomatoes that managed to survive. Here it's how they looked when I got them from the plant.

My tomatoes ready for harvest

I took the tomato plant out this weekend, It might not had been the most successful crop, but I had a lot of fun, learned a lot, and I did got some tomatoes out of it.

Fresh harvest

I will sure try again next year. And with more than one plant. But, what kind?
Maybe some cherry tomatoes or some big ones.

My tomatoes from 2010

I don't know much about varieties, any recommendation?

Strawberries in August!!

This weekend I harvested the first strawberry of the august batch!

my strawberry harvest of August!

I don’t know why, but my strawberries just keep on giving fruit. I was surprised when they gave a batch in November, but now they have been giving since may and again now in august.

I think they might be the ever bearing type, but the label they come with says it is a June bearing. Also they continue to give out many runners, I have to cut some out every week, and ever bearing are supposed to give very few runners. So it's very confusing.

this strawberry was getting big in mid august

Last month after the July harvest I thought that was the end. The plant had given out a very generous batch of several branches and then stopped giving flowers. But this time I noticed some new flowers were about to come out early august. Another week and they were at full bloom. I artificially pollinated the first flower and let the others be as nature intended.

Last week that one strawberry started to ripen and the rest started to get some volume. And finally this last weekend I harvested successfully that one strawberry. It had a very funny pear shape, very different to the ones I got this July.

Pear strawbery

Now the rest of the batch doesn’t look like it will grow more, and they didn't got enough pulp, so I guess I should have pollinated those as well. But well I'm very happy with my one pear shaped strawberry harvest, it was very sweet, one of the sweetest of this year.

I wouldn't be shocked if the plant will try to fruit some more this fall. Like i said before, of all my plants it is the one that continue to surprise me every time

It was very sweet