A (Small) Step Up From a Fire Escape Garden

Now that I've stopped going out of town every five minutes, I decided that there is just enough summer left to attempt to grow some tomatoes. The good news is that just about no one around here is putting in plants anymore, so some of the tomato plants at the hardware store were on sale. The bad news is that the ones that were left were in pretty dire straits.

Still, I felt sorry for them, and I was willing to put a couple of dollars and hours of my time on the line if it meant the chance of vine ripened, homegrown tomatoes. There is a vast, vast difference between a homegrown tomato and the sorry excuses for tomatoes sold in the grocery stores, in my opinion, and I like almost nothing better than a freshly picked tomato sprinkled with salt or dressed up with basil and balsamic. So I picked up three of the the healthiest plants I could find (which is not saying much) and some pots/soil/fertilizer/cages and potted them at home.


I love our house, and we have a beautiful front yard, but one of the major downsides of our humble home is that we don't have a backyard. So I will have to settle for pots for a while. The nice thing about pots, however, is that you can change your mind again and again about the best place for planting long after you've actually planted. I tried them out by our front door first but eventually decided they would do best on the ground by the driveway, which gets a few more hours of sunlight each day.

Transplanting is stressful for plants, and these three weren't looking too hot to begin with. But my hopes are high that with careful watering and plenty of space to grow, we'll get to enjoy at least a few beefsteaks, Valencias, and Lemon Boys (whatever those are) before the first frost.