With today’s post I want to introduce some gardens other than my own.
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Two of my “city kids” have gardens. Andy is in Pilsen in Chicago and Jesse is in the Williamsburg neighborhood of Brooklyn. They both have very limited space for growing vegetables but that doesn’t seem to stop them from rather ambitious plantings.

Andy says, “It’s really amazing just how much you can grow if you have enough room and decide to devote enough space for plants. I’ll be totally set with tomatoes for the summer with three plants. Oh wait, actually four plants.”

In addition to the tomatoes Andy is growing:

• habañero and jalapeño plants from seeds Jesse gave him from last year’s plants

• herbs: thyme and basil

• a two-year old strawberry plant that hasn’t yet produced any fruit

• mustard greens

• a forget-me-not plant

It’s important to note that all of Andy’s plants are inside his second-floor apartment in front of his large north-facing windows.

Andy says, “I’ve been using Terracycle plant food, which is the worm crap fertilizer and it has worked pretty well. I also like how they recycle old plastic pop bottles for the packaging. I guess one thing about container gardening is that you have to keep up with watering because the dirt in containers dries out very quickly.”

Andy's Chicago garden

Jesse also has an amazing garden in a very small space. I asked him last evening if he could send me a photo. He answered this way,

i saw your message and directly went and shot a photo of my tomato plants. there was supposed to be a storm tonight and this was just as the rain started coming down. those are in my bedroom window. they are growing strong, but they have not fruited yet. many brown leaves. perhaps i am not watering enough? i have a feeling this is it. nothing i have is in the ground and i think the water runs out quickly. it is also possibly very crowded. i have five large plants in my window. in my other bedroom/office/darkroom window i have my squashes and one other tomato plant. they are doing similar. the squashes have been fruiting slightly, but they have fallen off when they do . i will keep at it.

Jesse also notes that container plants need to be watered more often than ground plantings. I would also add that tomato plants are self-pollinating. That is, they don’t need insects to pollinate. They DO, however, need wind or something to make this happen. With indoor tomato and pepper plants you may need to tap the flowers gently to get them to pollinate. Some people use an electric toothbrush to make this happen! Since Jesse’s are on an outside window cage he should be fine. I do wonder a little about Andy’s north light for tomatoes! And… wait a minute… Did Jesse actually say that he has squash plants in his window?

Jesse's Brooklyn garden as the rain begins to fall

here’s a shot of my (habañero) peppers coming along. just waiting for them to turn….. i can’t remember what color i planted. orange i believe.

peppers

Little "Tabasco"

this is what i found sprouting in my habañero plants when i went to check them in my window cage this morning. only food related because of the peppers…. i don’t eat kitten often.          -jesse

ripe cherry tomato!

There are some good thing to report!

• In spite of a cool, wet summer our first cherry tomato has ripened.

• Pumpkins are getting large and on their way to 25#, or so the seed packet says.

• We are learning many ways to cook zucchini! Katie had a zucchini Asiago cheese-omelet this morning.

• Wildflower seeds I planted are blooming, although I don’t know what most of them are.

Anyone who knows wildflowers please feel free to help me identify them.

Any Brooklyn pumpkins yet, Jesse?

How about Pilsen jalapeños, Andy? Does the el cast too much shade on your garden?

This pumpkin is about 12 inches long so far.

unknown wildflower

unknown wildflower with bee

My children love to cook. They don’t always cook very normal stuff so when Jesse told me that he cooked something from his Brooklyn garden I was curious. Below are the results.

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while i could have climbed out my back window and walked fifty feet to taco santana for one of their delicious pumpkin flower quesadillas, i decided i’d just reach out the window and grab a few. unfortunately there were just a few, but i made do. i found out which are males and which are females; i think all mine so far are males. i picked them and got poked a bit. seems some of the ‘hairs’ on the plant are like very fine cactus needles.

i tossed them in a pan with a bit of garlic and cooked them until they wilted a bit and browned. while they don’t have a very strong taste, they are very earthy and squashlike.

today i threw a few more on top of a black-bean burger with gorgonzola and homemade ketchup!

-jesse

I got this from Jesse’s blog and really liked it! -Bill
There is an update to this here!
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here is my copycatted pumpkin planter. some old boards and an old sheet. it certainly doesn’t look as good as a burlap sack. i had to relocate my peppers to my bedroom window along with the random plants that happen to be growing in my hanging planter. i obviously need more soil which will be gotten tomorrow. hopefully there isn’t too much rain. for tonight my pumpkins will once again sleep in their bucket.

bonus #1 the tomato cage i labored over for far too long. some dowels and wire.

bonus #2 the reflection of my target gnome sheets i scored on clearance for 7 bucks!

may 23, 2009