Tomatoes where? Well I'll be darned...

Yep, just when you least expect it, just when you'd given up all but the most fleeting moments of hope...

I'd brought this plant in from my balcony at the beginning of the winter since it was still fairly young (was basically a cutting from another plant that had taken root too late in the season). I didn't really know what I had in mind to do with it, but I found this little perch for it by the balcony door and kept watering it all winter (albeit from time to time quite sparingly).

Half of it even got attacked by aphids (as you can see, I need to pinch off those dead leaves), but it stayed green all winter, surprisingly! I didn't think it would get enough sun sitting here to live.

But maybe tomatoes have a hibernation phase?

Low and behold, a few weeks ago, the little sucker sprouted some blooms! Once again hopeful and a bit surprised, I gently shook and rattled the branches in a pollination attempt. Guess it worked because....

Now I have this!

indoor tomato, about 2 in. diameter

 I really didn't expect that! And then, more blooms! And this (just noticed today!):

another tomato, about half an inch wide

Am I gonna get an indoor tomato crop? Wow! What a pleasant waiting-for-spring surprise! Not only did I not think the cutting would bloom at all, but it has produced fruit....indoors? I mean, it is at least protected from wind here, and I guess it didn't need quite as much sun as I'd thought.

Inspires me to try some other experiments!

Pictures / Overview of this year's balcony vegetable garden so far!

This year's balcony vegetable garden so far!

So! I'll get right to it, the moment you've been waiting for - I present: this year's vegetable garden, balcony-style!

Here you can also see the approx. size of my balcony. I wanted to leave room for a table and 2 chairs, as well as for not only the plants to grow, but spots for more pots, such as some chili plants that are not ready to go outside yet. I got a few plants transplanted this week (zucchinis, tomatoes, chilis), and seeds out last week, and as you can see, some have already come up! Exciting! It's been pretty crappy weather lately, pretty rainy and not all that warm, but I'm hoping things will shape up soon and I will see some germination in my peas and pole beans.

Herbs (from left to right): lemon balm, cilantro, mint; chives, rosemary, parsley; oregano, sage, thyme. The far left pot are plants I bought and transplanted, as well as was the rosemary, since mine didn't survive the winter after all.

My lettuce was a paper band of seed, with 3 varieties of leaf lettuce: Batavia Lettuce "Teide", Leaf Lettuce "Grand Rapids", and Leaf Lettuce "Lollo Bionda". Three kinds in one planter, it's great! And the bands make it really easy to plant.

I also now prefer red onions (here "piroska") because of their milder flavor, which are also great picked and eaten as green onions!

I decided to try something else new this year, micro greens, here the "mild mix - Brassica and Amaranthus", from Botanical Interests! I'd seen a package at the seed store last summer, and it just seemed appetizing. It's basically a mix of various seeds (such as red beets, cabbage, kohlrabi, pak choi, and swiss chard) that are meant to be planted together and harvested once they reach about 1-3 inches. I'm hoping they all grow at the same rate! I may also let them get a little bigger. They'll be great to top salads, in sandwiches, or on crackers with cream cheese!

The only other non-standard items are my pole beans - they are purple ones, which also bear pretty purple flowers. They are pretty much the same consistency when ripe of a normal green bush bean, but are deep purple in color. Here, "blauwschediger spek".

Here's how my window sill inside (right next to my balcony) is looking so far:

Here you can see a few chili plants (jalapeno, purple jalapeno) in the front, a basil plant, an aloe vera plant (which won't go outside), and my greenhouse, which is home to an extra tomato plant and my "white lightning" habanero chilis, which seem to be growing very slowly. I suspect they need a lot of heat, so I'm keeping them in the greenhouse as long as possible. I'm also glad I decided to keep a jalapeno and purple jalapeno plant indoors - the ones outside are looking a bit beaten up, probably due to wind and cold temps. Plus, something ate off a few leaves on both plants! I don't think it was my cat, so bird? Squirrel??

Things are definitely shaping up in my edible balcony paradise, now let's all hope for some warmth!

Update on water-/soilless kitchen growing...

So I decided to go with the flow after realizing that my kitchen is a great place to sprout aging vegetables! Guess it's the not-too-hot temps and shade that promote growth, but I wanted to share how things are looking as of today (they've been "maturing" for maybe about 2 weeks now):

coriander

coriander (close-up)

napa cabbage

napa cabbage (close-up)

onions

I love it! Who would have thought that the napa cabbage would started blooming at that size! There is some root growth, too, so with a transplant it might actually go somewhere. And then such pretty little yellow flowers on it! The way the flower shoot is growing kinda reminds me of agave plants, which also grow a huge flower shoot out like that. Memories of warm weather and sandy beaches!

Looks like only some of the coriander is really "taking" to its new container...I may try to plant it outside soon to get some more root development and (hopefully) more stems and bigger leaves. That would be awesome to actually get another harvest from these plants (which I bought from the produce section of the Asian market, by the way).

And last but not least, the onions! They are also doing very well. The bigger one is getting a bit yellow (gee, I wonder why!), so I may have to use it as a green onion soon before it wilts again. The upper one has a nice strong stalk!

So, just a little kitchen fun and experimenting! Happy weekend, everyone, and don't be afraid to have fun once in a while, too! :)

Indoor Seedling Progess (with pics)!

So, after about 2 weeks in my little greenhouse, sitting on warm windowsill with full afternoon sun, my seedlings are taking off! Have a look (see this previous post for what the plants are / before pic)!

As you'll notice, some of everything has come up so far, so I'm excited about that. You can't see it due to a big zucchini leaf hiding it, but the upper right corner also has a little chili seedling growing there - just came up a day or two ago. The chilis (everything to the right of the zucchinis) did take the longest to germinate, but I don't mind waiting...as long as they show up I'm happy!

As you can see, I also have a cherry tomato and a large tomato sprouting their second leaves already,which is also happening on the zucchini plants. It better start warming up outside soon so I can get these plants out! Otherwise may have to re-pot them indoors, since especially the zucchinis are running out of room (and overtaking everything).

I also thought that since I planted 2 seeds per hole and both sets came up, I would try to save the extras and give away to friends (since I probably won't have enough space on my balcony for them), so here are the "leftovers":

I just carefully wiggled it out of the moist soil when it was a few inches tall from its hole partner and stuck it in a little shot glass with some water - wasn't sure if there was too much root damage for it to survive, but I figured it was worth a shot! At it seemed to work! The second one (in the background) is trying really hard to recover being half-eaten by a certain cat that dwells here.... :)

The season has now officially begun

sprouted zucchini plant, a few days old

I would just like to announce that the edible balcony garden season has now begun!!!

The winner of the germination challenge is: zucchini! It sprouted within days!

A close second goes to: the tomatoes! One of each kind has showed itself.

And a few days later, the jalapeno plants decided to come up, much sooner than I'd expected. Germination on the other chili plants was described to be 10-14 days, so they're a whole week ahead of the game.

As soon as it starts to warm up (not really a start in sight, and it is still below freezing at night here, ugh, when is winter gonna be over?!), I will start some seeds outdoors, such as radishes,  (red) onion bulbs, and lettuce.

Will also get a few new herb plants to fill the holes in my one planter - sorry, not growing herbs from "scratch" this year, it just takes too long and the warm season here is pretty short! Luckily it looks like several of my herbs have survived yet another winter, such as my already-regrowing chives, rosemary, parsley (!), thyme, sage, and oregano. Great! Don't know if my lemon balm made it through the wintery past few weeks, but if not, I would like to replace it and get some basil and some mint. I have a hard plastic separator that I use to keep the mint roots from taking over the whole pot - basically just a piece of plastic that separates the soil.

Hope it starts warming up soon!

Seeds started, no April Fool's joke!

seeds started in my mini greenhouse

I hope everyone had a nice Easter weekend! I did - finally got some seeds started a few days ago, and here are the results!

• #1 and #2- cherry tomatoes
• #3 and #4 - tomatoes, bottom one is actually a variety made for pots
• #5 and #6 - zucchini
• #7 and #8 - "white lightning" habanero chili peppers
• #9 and #10 - purple jalapenos
• #11 and #12 - jalapenos

So excited! I had ordered a few kinds of chili pepper seeds last summer from Amazon, but since they came late I decided to hold onto them until this year. Am looking forward to seeing how they do - I have had a fair amount of luck with chili peppers on my balcony in the past few years, so I am excited to try a few different kinds of fresh chilis - the taste of the actually pepper is amazing!

I decided to forgo and cucumbers or squash this season for two reasons:

1. I haven't had any of my squash plants bloom, ever!
2. I think I need bigger pots for squash and cucumber, but I'm not sure that I want to sacrifice the space for a plant that may not produce again!
3. It's too windy on my balcony for vertical gardening, so there is little space for the vines even IF they had bigger pots

zucchini flowers (front in a box)
sold at Campo de Fiori outdoor market, Rome

Nonetheless, I am going to try zucchini again - not giving up on that quite yet! I did get a few to come last year, but were very small (like 3-4 inches long), but I got lots of flowers.

My thought is that if I can tell that the vegetables aren't going to get bigger, I can just eat the flowers! On my trip to Rome with my mom last May, we got to try fried zucchini blooms, a local specialty. I've heard of them served filled with cream cheese, but what we tried were just lightly dusted with flour and deep (or pan?) fried. We even saw where you could buy them with the mini zucchini still attached - at the Campo de Fiori outdoor market in Rome. They look to be about the size that I have produced on my balcony.

A special treat! Here's a recipe from About.com to try, or a stuffed version from food & style. Can't wait!