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 little garden in Japan June 2011

I can't believe it is the end of June already, this month went by so fast I couldn't really notice. Here is how my little garden in Japan is doing lately. Summer has really kick in at the garden, and pretty much everything is doing great right now. The balcony is completely green and grown, I can hardly walk among the plants, even though I do pruning regularly they are still overcoming me with so many new leafs.

Hope for more flowers and soon some pumpkins

• The veggie planters are doing all great! The beans are so full of pods and the pumpkin is ready to give many flowers.
  
  
• The flowerboxes are in a small period of growth with not many flowers because I just got the pansies out and new plants in, but I am expecting a lot of new blooms soon.
  
  
• Finally I have some strawberries in the garden. This year because of April's vacation drought my strawberries lost their strength and most of them probably won't give any fruit for the season, however a couple of them did manage to put some flowers and now they are getting ready to be eaten.

Finally, delicious strawberries

• The blueberries are growing more and more, I can't wait to august for them to be ready.
  
  
• The tomatoes are completely covered with fruit, and If I count both the mini tomatoes and the big tomatoes I have more than 100 fruits getting more and more ripe every day. It is going to be an amazing summer for them.

The tomatoes keep growing and growing

• The calla lilies keep on flowering. I discovered five different kinds among them, It is going to be so great next year when they bloom more properly.
  
  
• The rest of the plants, with very few exceptions are doing well.

My little garden in japan is all full of green this summer

And last, the butterflies are all grown, but more about that later.

My little garden in Japan may 2011

It is the end of May and I almost forgot to do the monthly update, so just to finish the month here is how my garden is doing. Most plants are doing great, all the vegetables are growing like crazy and many of the other plants are getting new leaves.

Summer is here

With summer so close, a lot of the winter flowers are starting to fade. The flowerboxes are starting to look a bit shaggy and dull. I think is time I take away the pansies from the flowerbox and get new flowers for this season. The good part is that many of the summer flowers are starting to bloom. The calla lily has been flowering since a couple weeks ago, the same for the lavender. The dahlia just started blooming, the survivor chocolate cosmos also has some buttons and the zempasuchitl is right behind. All summer flowers are ready to go.

All the summer flowers are ready to go

The tomatoes are already growing fruit, and they keep growing more and more. If I don’t check on them just one day, they go away from the trellis. They are certainly unruly, but I am sure the tomatoes will be worth it.

The first tomatoes of the season

The strawberries are a bit worrisome, they still don’t have any blooms. I was expecting some all this month but so far nothing. I hope they didn't waste all their energy back at April with the vacation drought. Not much I can do but wait.

The blueberries are getting bigger every day. Since they flowered in the windy days, I was afraid I would not get much fruit, but it seems a lot of them made it. I am glad that the assisted pollination worked. Now I just have to hope the birds don't decide to take them away.

Delicious blueberries

The only bad news is the red rose. It got sick since I went to Mexico, and despite my best efforts I doesn't seem to be getting better. It had some flower buds but it dropped them, along with all the leaves, now is just a couple of sticks that keep getting more and more yellow every day. I think I will have to say good bye and get a new one, but I still have a little hope.

With all the plants growing so much, I need to keep pruning very diligently or the balcony will become a jungle very fast. It is definitely the start of summer at My little balcony.

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?

My tomato

Tomatoes, one of the favorite crops of all gardeners around the world.

My tomatoes early in the season

 
Of all my plants, my tomatoes are by far the plant that has taught me the most.

It all started on a small trip to the garden center this spring. They had the whole entrance dedicated to only tomatoes. So many varieties. I was instantly convinced and bought a small seedling for my garden. 

This time I tried to be more prepared. I wanted to be able to harvest something so I research online how to take care of tomatoes. I got some basics, but as I found out later, there is so much to master if you want to have nice tomatoes.
I got a mid size pot and some support trellis. Set up the tomato and hoped for the best.

Being a completely newbie on tomatoes, I struggled from the start. I learned the hard way that tomatoes suck up more water than other plants. I usually water every two days in spring, but my tomato wanted water as much as two times per day.

My first tomato

So after that initial struggle my tomato settled in and then it started growing like crazy. From a little seedling it developed a nice thick stem and bloomed some flowers very fast.

Watching how that little flower become a tomato was one of the most rewarding things I had on my garden. It soon become a little green ball. And many other flowers appeared as well. But then, nothing..., the flowers keep dropping and no new tomatoes. I didn’t know if I do anything wrong, I even went and buy some fertilizer to help, but still nothing.

So I went back online to see what was going on and found out tomatoes need help to be pollinated. With me being on the tenth floor and in the middle of the city bees are quite scarce, so I had to try artificial pollination. I use some old electric toothbrush and voila! More tomatoes.

 My tomato growing like crazy

Early summer, I harvested that first tomato in all happiness and continued to take care of the plant. Also around those days I had some trouble with the rain. After a couple rainy days, some of the leafs got diseases, I just prune the plant a little and then it was all good again.

After that my tomato kept growing more and more, the new flowers all turn into fruit and become bigger and bigger every day it was all happy. But then… I went on vacation... My backup watering on vacations plan did not work and that week become the dread week of the vacation draught. When I came back, my poor tomatoes were showing all signs of dehydration. The lack of water stunt the growth of all the fruit that didn’t dry and also all new flowers died. From more than 15 possible tomatoes only six remained. And they where not in a good shape.

My tomato got big scars from lack of water

I did as I could. Watered thoroughly, fertilizer and lots of attention. The plant start to look better but never fully recovered.

At the end I did manage to harvest those last six tomatoes. They did not grow big, they where between a cherry tomato and a normal tomato. But they sure tasted delicious. We even try a test, ate a store bought tomato (it was good) then eat my little garden in japan tomato (it was very good!) and then try again the store bought one again (where did the flavor went??).

Many lessons learned. Be careful with the water, use bigger pot to have more moist, pollinate, keep away from rain, etc.

All in all, even if it was not the best crop ever it was most rewarding. Now the season is over for me. I still haven't got the heart to put down the plant but I probably will do it this weekend. I can't wait for next year to see what the new season will bring.

Early august harvest

My plants

Here is a small ever-changing list of the plants on my garden.
I will try to update this page accordingly to my current garden status. All my plants are now on the "my garden" page

 

• Mint: One apple mint and one peppermint
• Beans: No idea what kind I just try to sow some I didn’t eat
• Grape: It's a Pione, I just got it this month 
• Cilantro: Now on the second sow, I hope they are still on season
• Basil: Sweet basil, I want to try to cook with it
• Japanese maple tree (紅葉): The pot actually has four different kinds I'm waiting for autumn to see which one I keep
• Kalanchoe: Pink, donated by a shop
• Strawberry (苺): In memory of my grandfather 
• Tomato: On the end of season
• Pepper: Rescued form a garden shop trash
• Torenia: White, so many flowers
• Blue Salvia: Beautiful purple flowers
• Zantedeschia: My first plant in japan
• Rose: A little yellow mini rose
• Geranium: White and red for my mom
• Globe amaranth*: For the butterflies  

 

All of my plants have been an adventure on its own, some have worked some have not. Also besides from this I hope to acquire some tulips and maybe some other plants along the road.

*Updated 27 Aug 2010: A brand new globe amaranth