Tag Archives: Tomatoes

Nightshades on Parade

Tomatoes are iffy here.  To do well you have to find a sunny spot, a warm micro climate works best.  My garden spot just is at the edge of the garden and as such doesn’t serve tomatoes well.  Our little balcony is another story.  High up on the south side of the building, the sun warms the area early and continues through most of the day.  Varieties suited to containers are my mainstay and this year is no exception.  This past month has seen the harvest of the Tiny Tims I purchased at the local garden center.  A packed purchased on Amazon was either crossed with something else or mislabeled unless Tiny Tim has grown in to Jack’s Giant. Fortunately a neighbor with more space adopted Jack’s tomato and my little TT has been putting out fruit for the past couple weeks.  The Lil’ Bites cherry that I started from seed has also started ripening.  Wow are there going to be a LOT of cherry tomatoes.

Of the nightshades that have done wonderfully this year are the Russian Banana potatoes I planted back in April.  We had our first ‘official’ harvest a couple of weeks ago.  Almost 5 pounds from one small tuber.  I planted 10 and am planning to stagger the harvest to have potatoes well into the Fall.  These fingerlings are wonderful roasted or baked.  I’ve not tried preparing them any other way so can’t speak to how they would do boiled or mashed.

The zucchini are thriving with the Oya.  I’ve only watered them through the clay vessle.  It probably helps that we’ve had fairly frequent showers this summer so far.  Not sure how they would fare in a drier year.

Some green onions and a couple of leeks from the early planting.  The leeks can be harvested any time from now on.  They’ve done quite well.

The beans have started coming in.  Nothing really seems to bother them here.  I’ve yet to run into Mexican bean beetle or rust.

Harvested:

  • Beans - Roma & Topcrop
  • Cukes – SMR-58
  • Green Onions
  • Leeks
  • Potatoes – Russian Banana
  • Tomatoes – Tiny Tim (purchased as transplant) & Lil Bites
  • Zucchini

Planted:

  • Beans – Contender

Two Tiny Tomatoes Perfect for a Tiny Space

For the past couple of years I’ve kept my tomato growing to the balcony. The 50sq foot space gets almost all day sun in which tomatoes thrive. In addition to the one large salad tomato planted in a half barrel, our balcony supports a dozen or so different herbs in pots, several fig trees I started from cuttings brought out from KY and several pots of geraniums and pansies. I knew I wouldn’t be satisfied with a single tomato plant so I set out to find something small that wouldn’t take up much of our little remaining space. This year I opted for an old favorite and a new variety I had never grown. Both were started inside under lights in the early part of April. A couple of weeks ago I transplanted them to their final containers.

Tiny Tim Tomatoes

Tiny Tim Cherry Tomatoes
Tiny Tim is an old favorite of mine. An upright heirloom variety that grows just about a foot tall, this open pollinated tomato was introduced in the 1940s and does really well in containers. I’ve had luck planting 3-4 plants in a 3 gallon container. They are a little crowded which means a little more work keeping up on the watering and feeding but I find it worth the extra effort and the yield is great for the amount of space required. I trellis the plants by cutting the bottom ring off of a 3 ring tomato cage and using the two two rings to contain the plants. They end up looking like little green bushes full of small red fruit. The taste is tangy sweet.

Litt’l Bites Tomatoes

Renee’s Litt’l Bites is a new variety for me. An English tomato that also grows to about 12 inches in height but tends to spread sideways more than TT. The two I planted should be spilling over the side of the railing planter they are sharing with some trailing nasturtiums and pansies before too long. Since this is a new variety for me I can’t attest to their taste but The plants are very sturdy and already sport a number of blossoms and a few small tomaotoes despite the 50-60f temps we have been having recently. Our weather here in the Seattle area is a lot like some parts of England so I have high hopes that this will become another favorite of mine. I’ll update this post once I actually get to taste them.