I'm trying my hand at indoor gardening :) I bought a tomato plant, cilantro and basil. My windows are huge and along one entire wall of my condo, so I get pretty direct sunlight all day long (more in the winter than the summer, though)...and those are the items that will be awesome to have fresh. I have such a weakness for fresh, ripe, soil-grown tomatoes and I use basil and cilantro fairly often, so I'm thinking that it will be nice to just be able to cut it rather than store it in my fridge where it goes bad if I don't use it immediately.
It will also be funny to pollinate the tomato plants. As far as I have learned, they are self-pollinating, so all I have to do is hold a vibrator up to the flowers once a day :D Sweet.
I was thinking someone might have some advice.. I know Urs reads about that stuff a lot and in Erica's education she may have come across some tid-bit of knowledge...
6.09.2008
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
9 comments:
You're inside so I doubt you'll have much trouble with bugs munching on your stuff, which is what I know about. We tried to grow herbs but we live in a basement apartment with very little sunlight...and we failed.
Rock, I love you! I can just see you holding your vibrator up against your plants .... :)
We, too are gardening this summer. We have a potted garden outside, but I plan to take them in during the winter. We are growing peppers, tomatoes, cilantro, onions, carrots, beans, and cucumbers. I found a few good websites for some indoor hints. I'll email them to you when i get a sec!
I didn't realize that I read about that stuff a lot :] I know my mom wants me to get a tomato plant and I've been thinking about getting a cilantro plant, but I'd use my balcony for sunlight...
You guys are so ambitious. :) I love it. And I espsecially love vibrating the tomatoes.
I helped my friend Brie with her St Paul garden last summer and learned a lot about everything from tomatoes and basil to onions and strawberries. One important thing to remember about basil is that you need to keep pinching off any flowers you see and to "harvest" the leaves starting with those at the top.
Tomatoes are pretty easy as long as you have good light, water, and nutrients/good soil (they love compost).
Cilantro seems like it'd be as easy as any other herb.
If you like sugar snap peas, they'd be easy too if you have good light. And, um, YUM.
I should add that I am insanely jealous of your light.. utterly consumed with envy.
When I have a house, one of the musts is a sunroom. I will fill it with edible plants, a bookshelf, a small fountain, and a chaise, and it will be the best place in. the. world.
Urs, I just knew you read about food stuff a lot, so I was hoping you might have some insight :)
The tomato plants smells SO GOOD.
Thanks, Lise, websites that help would be AWESOME!
Lauren, thanks for the advice! I didn't know about the flowers or harvesting. That makes sense. I *love* sugar snap peas, but I am unfortunately super allergic to them :( Otherwise I'd grow them in a heart beat!
Dude, Erica, I have this group of asshole fruit flies living in my plants (not my tomato or herbs, yet). Do you know how to get rid of them?!?
Get a bottle with a narrow neck and stick a funnel (you can make the funnel out of paper...preferably yellow paper) in the neck of the bottle. Put some bananas in the bottle. The flies will fly down the funnel to get the bananas and they are too stupid to find their way out. You could also hang some flypaper by the plants.
There are mild insecticidal soaps you can buy at the hardware store to wash your plants with.
Done! Thanks.
Post a Comment