Over the past few weeks, I’ve been showering my lettuce plants with love because they’ve been producing the most. Nearly forgot that I had peppers and tomatoes planted on my fire escape as well.
Luckily for me, they didn’t hold it against me and are starting to produce. There is a small sweet Italian pepper that has formed and is doing it’s thing (whatever it’s called) with lots of flowering going on.
My cherry tomato plant is also blooming (I’ll use different phrases until I find out what the proper terminology is) and flowering as well. Being the experienced gardener that I am, I bought a cherry tomato plant for my fire escape thinking that small tomatoes equals small plant. Not so much.
The tomato plant has grown to be pretty large, but it’s still not in the way on the fire escape. Since that’s what it is, a fire escape and not my personal garden.
I have an old mirror frame to support it for now, but with the tomatoes starting to grow, I’ll need to find something a bit more sturdy. Will just go to the park and get some tree branches.
Happy that I’ve raised my vegetables not to hold grudges and they’re still doing their thing. Pretty soon, I’ll have something besides lettuce to chow down on.
httpv://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vp1G_kyCnBo
Sweet. Not sure what sort of restrictions you have since it is a fire escape, after all…but you might want to see if you can run some twine up from the container to whatever you can attach it to above (slat, support beam, etc.). I've had good luck with winding the main stalk of the plant around the twine and training it to grow vertically and not so much bush out. It's an old square-foot garden trick that seems to work well, especially when space is an issue.
Good idea. My grandmother recently trimmed one of her trees, so she has a lot of sturdy branches. I might attempt to use them and construct something along the lines of what you said to tame the tomatoes.
The only fire escape restrictions that I am aware of is that people need space to walk and nothing hanging over the edges too much.
I love that you're doing this and blogging about it. Your earlier video inspired several of my container projects this summer, and I'll post about them in the coming weeks. I've been able to harvest banana peppers already, and ones I've left on the plants are turning red. Also have some jalapenos ripening, and some bell peppers starting to flower. My container tomatoes are way behind yours, but they've been flowering recently. It looks like you'll be eating tomatoes within a week or two!
Awesome. Happy that I inspired you. Can't wait to see what you've done. Sounds great. I'm considering really blowing out and growing more in Brooklyn.
It's been a lot of fun thus far.
Sweet. Not sure what sort of restrictions you have since it is a fire escape, after all…but you might want to see if you can run some twine up from the container to whatever you can attach it to above (slat, support beam, etc.). I've had good luck with winding the main stalk of the plant around the twine and training it to grow vertically and not so much bush out. It's an old square-foot garden trick that seems to work well, especially when space is an issue.
Good idea. My grandmother recently trimmed one of her trees, so she has a lot of sturdy branches. I might attempt to use them and construct something along the lines of what you said to tame the tomatoes.
The only fire escape restrictions that I am aware of is that people need space to walk and nothing hanging over the edges too much.
I love that you're doing this and blogging about it. Your earlier video inspired several of my container projects this summer, and I'll post about them in the coming weeks. I've been able to harvest banana peppers already, and ones I've left on the plants are turning red. Also have some jalapenos ripening, and some bell peppers starting to flower. My container tomatoes are way behind yours, but they've been flowering recently. It looks like you'll be eating tomatoes within a week or two!
Awesome. Happy that I inspired you. Can't wait to see what you've done. Sounds great. I'm considering really blowing out and growing more in Brooklyn.
It's been a lot of fun thus far.