Condo Garden Tomato Harvest

The little potted plant garden that we've got on our deck has been the best one we've had so far, I think. We ended up focusing our efforts down from varied options to just a few, and I think that is working to our advantage for this. I would certainly love to get more variety in there, but in terms of pots that's a little challenging.

The garden space that we have is thankfully pretty good in terms of weather. It gets great sunlight throughout the summer, there is some wind to cool the plants off and it also gets a decent amount of shade in the day as well. These are all pretty good factors when it comes to growing plants.

What I think the real winner here is the combination of the fertilizer that I got from a store and the new watering method that we are using.

The fertilizer, I'll post a picture of it in one of the future posts, has really done well for us. I add more fertilizer to the plants than it calls for, but we are really getting some good results from it and I think that's worth the added usage. I will definitely have to buy a bag each year in terms of the plants but that's okay, I don't mind that small sacrifice. I was worried about the fertilizer though, because previous ones I've tried to use just weren't that good and didn't really help the plants.

I think the watering method I'm using as well, also definitely helps them. I have been watering them 2 or 3 times per day, every day so that they get lots of water as well as lots of food. The fertilizer sits on top of the soil which is fine, except that it tends to clump up a bit and I don't know if it's sending too many nutrients down into the soil in that particular location or what.

Watering the plants by doing the whole plant, instead of just the roots, seems to be the secret sauce.

@krazzytrukker reminded me that this is what natural rain does.. which makes sense if you're not overthinking shit like I am hahaha so I have been sticking to that. I give each of the plants a thorough soaking but focus most of the water on the big tomato plants like the cherry tomato one here. It's gone NUTS producing for us!

The little man loves tomatoes, as do many people I think, but cherry tomatoes are his absolute favorite. They are mine as well, when they are fresh. When they are fresh from the garden, you get the maximum flavor out of them which is awesome. The plant decided recently that it was just going to absolutely explode with tomatoes! We were getting like 4 or 5 every few days but one day, after we gave it lots of fertilizer and water, it decided to just fucking go ham and produce a shit load of fruits!

This was the most recent harvest! All from one plant, that's pretty wild. The little man ate all of these in a single session, and would have tried to do it in a single mouthful if he could lol.

I really enjoy doing the gardening this year, especially because I get to put in the time and effort for my son to give him food that we toiled for. Granted we didn't grow the plant itself, we bought it when it was already a decent size but that's the compromise you have to make sometimes. We don't have a big space, nor space in the house to set up a grow light and all that so we do what we can with what we have. Getting the plants already in good shape is a big win.

Spending the time caring for them every day has been good for me, as it gives me another thing to do and it gets me outside. When working from home, one of the challenges is that we often don't get to do things sometimes like go out for a walk. I'm not complaining too much because it has many other benefits but being able to spend 10 or 15 minutes out on my deck watering my plants, taking care of them and making them produce food for my son is a really important win for me!

Next week, I'm hoping that we finally get to harvest a bell pepper! We will see though, they are definitely slow-but-steady in terms of growth!

What about you, do you have a little garden going where you live? Do you get a lot of food from it? Let me know in the comments!