K&R+X

Yesterday I noticed that our Thai Pink Egg tomato plant has tomatoes on it! I tried to get a picture but it was cloudy and too dark beneath the leaves. Once we get some sun maybe I’ll get a good picture of the developing tomatoes. Still nothing on the Emerald Evergreen plants except flowers.

The Cocozella di Napoli plants have been our best producers. We’ve been able to harvest new zucchini fairly often. The straightneck squash hasn’t been getting pollinated very well so most of the squash on it have shriveled up. There one good one out there right now, maybe a couple others.

We have two productive basil plants. One Genovese and one Fine Verde. The Genovese is the sort of basil I’m used to but I like the Fine Verde. They’d both be doing better if they had better sun. I may try replanting some after the squash are finished. Then they could be up at the front of the porch and get more light.

The lettuce never worked out well but there is one small plant left. I doubt we’ll get much from it.

Our comeback king is the Quadrato d’Asti Rosso bell peppers. In their new location they’ve been growing rapidly and look much better. I don’t know if they’ll produce anything this year but we’ll see. They still have some time before it cools off again so maybe they will.

At this point I’d say the porch garden is fairly successful. If we actually get tomatoes I’ll be happy. Clearly we can’t fit five boxes on the porch unless we plant some shade-loving plants. Also, I think we need to get plants that won’t spread out so much. I plant to continue the porch garden with a fall crop.

The Emerald Evergreens continue to grow larger and larger. Our Thai Pink Egg tomatoes have also decided to take off, although they aren’t quite as large. Both types are blooming but we haven’t seen any tomatoes set yet. Once they set I expect to see lots! The squash also continue to produce delicious zucchini for us. We have a couple basil plants (hidden behind the tomatoes) that are still doing okay but not as well as they might have done. They just don’t get enough light. I think we’re going to be restricted to the outer edges of the porch. The bell peppers have been growing well in their new location. I don’t know if we’ll get any peppers from them but we’ll see.

The plants are taking over the porch! The tomatoes and squash have grown very large as can be seen in the pictures. It’s clear that those Earthboxes out near the front of the porch are getting enough sun. Those on the inside are not. They’re growing, but slowly. Even the Thai tomatoes, the plant nearest the apartment wall is much smaller. Maybe if we tried plants that like shade they’d do better than the bell peppers or basil, neither of which is doing all that well. I think I’ll try to rearrange things to help them out. Maybe move the rose bush. I’m not sure.

As far as the Earthboxes go I think they work fairly well. If we had better access to sun it’d be more worthwhile. I expect we’ll keep them around for areas where we want container plants in the future. After this year, though, I’ll probably put a couple away and just have three out while we’re here. We’ll see how it goes but I think the porch is just too shady.

We’ve harvested three zucchini so far. 3.5 oz., 3.3 oz., & 6.3 oz.. Delicious. The straightneck has started to bloom too. The tomatoes are doing well and the bell peppers are starting to grow more. I’m not sure that the peppers or the basil are getting enough sun, though.

Our tomatoes, both the Emerald Evergreen and the Thai Pink Egg tomatoes, are blooming. I’m looking forward to having fresh tomatoes from our porch garden. We also harvested our first zucchini from the Cocozella di Napoli. It was delicious! There are two more that we’ll probably harvest soon and many more flowers developing so hopefully we’ll get lots more. The other squash have been overwhelmed by the big Napoli but they are growing and it looks like the first straightneck we planted will be blooming soon. Next time — no more than two to an Earthbox like the tomatoes.