Way way back in February of this year I wrote about the teeny tiny tomato seedlings sprouting in my windowsill. After replanting the little guys into various containers around my deck and purchasing more than a half dozen additional planters for my recently-expanded roof-top garden, I can finally enjoy the fruits of my labor! Okay, not really. I can appreciate them visually for now, but will need to wait a bit longer before they’re actually edible.
Tiny green tomatoes
Of my roof-top plants, both varieties of tomatoes are bearing fruit (I planted Black Krim and Silvery Fir Tree) but the more traditional tomato bush is definitely winning the race, with at least four tomatoes already (see if you can find all four in the picture!).
Interestingly, the tomato plants on the roof have remained much shorter, maybe just two feet tall, but are successfully producing fruit, while my deck plants, who get a good degree less sun, are as tall as me but bear no fruit. I’ve debated moving the poor shadowed guys to the roof, but unless you know an easy way to move half wine barrels full of dirt, I think they’ll be staying put.
Hopefully very soon I will be posting about enjoying a nice Caprese Salad with my little tomatoes.
Hey, I would not want to bet my life on more than two, but I see some
blooms. We had none this year as Steve didn’t plant me any. Next year
I may have a pot for vegetables. they had the stuff that came up and flowers this year. Strawberries and rhubarb have been good! Where
is your roof garden - like on garage? Your dad plans to have raised
beds because of their rocks in TX. We could do that as we have horrible
clay soil. Funny thing is Steve has sandy soil and things grow great. He
never uses fertilizer and is very “green”. Hope you have lots of sucess.
love you
Comment by Gram — August 19, 2008 @ 8:31 am
So that’s what mozzarella-basil-tomato salad is called!
Westi, just the convoluted shape of those tomatoes shouts HOMEGROWN and YUMMMMMY to me. Congrats on harvesting the fruits of all your labor.
The comparison of the rooftop plants and the backyard plants sounds just like a bean-sprouting experiment we did in junior high. We used a dark closet for the “shady backyard” simulation. They just kept stretching out their stems longer and longer, desperately seeking more light…
It probably doesn’t work as an explanation of height in humans. Tall people haven’t necessarily been raised in dark closets. Still, as a short person, I like identifying with the sturdy, fruitful plants.
Comment by Jessi — August 19, 2008 @ 1:53 pm
By backyard plants I guess I meant your deck plants. Oops.
Comment by Jessi — August 19, 2008 @ 1:54 pm
I took pictures last night of the tomatoes I adopted from you and just posted them myself. (Yes, I actually am determined to start keeping my site going) Looks like we are all looking forward to the day when we can enjoy them. If we all get a few tomatoes each, maybe we can put them all together for a large salad with a group dinner? Love, Deborah
Comment by Deborah — August 19, 2008 @ 4:11 pm
Yay for Deborah!!!!! If you’d like to see Deborah’s post about her tomatoes (and some yummy peaches) visit http://www.whistlingdragonfly.com.
Comment by Westi — August 20, 2008 @ 7:46 am
Oh, Sharon, I forgot to answer your question. Yes, the roof-top garden is on top of our flat-roof garage. If you’ve seen our house, you know that there is no way in h*** you could put pots on our actual roof–it’s so steep the last bid we got from a roofer was over $20k, not because there’s very much of it, just that it was going to be extremely difficult (needless to say we have NOT yet replaced the roof!). We’ve actually thought about putting French doors in the smaller upstairs bedroom that would open up to the top of the garage and create a real, lovely garden space. Just another idea for the very long to do list.
Comment by Westi — August 23, 2008 @ 8:58 am
I hope you are eating that salad now because I am tired of looking at
this tomato plant! Laura did send us some other photos from your email that were interesting! Hey, can you still ride your bike or is that off limits
right now?
There web site sure had interesting photos today. Thatsunset was outstanding. love and miss you
Comment by Gram — September 10, 2008 @ 12:01 pm