Green Thumb - Ep.3

Since the last update about four weeks have passed. The plants have grown quite well, with the coming of more frequent rain showers adding much more nutrients to the soil than what we get from the spout a la Harford County Water & Sewer. The tomatoes have shown up in bunches and we had the fortune of picking the first two larger maters' you saw in the  previous post, perfectly vine ripened and delicious (see week 8 below). Beth ended up slipping me some home grown (initially) without my knowledge, via a salad, a couple days later. If we had more potted area to do so, I would've liked to have a couple more plants to up the bounty. We're in August now and the plants have both hit their stride; there is now a tomato count of about 10 on each plant, the second much larger plant finally catching up in the production department. The basil is doing good as well, sending out bunched extended spears of new leaves, but now leaning in different sections mainly due to heavy winds and rain. We've had some pretty quick yet hard storms, but thankfully the stems of this plant are resilient and flexible, so nothing has been lost. On the occasions that I had the time to inspect the basil plant in detail, I've found that many different insects have made it home and/or a place to acquire food.

Here is the latest break down of progress:

Week 7:

Week 8:

Week 9:

In the second to last shot from week 9 you can see how much the larger of our two tomato plants has perched itself on top of our decks railing in a few places; these spots are literally load-bearing as the tomatoes beneath them have gotten heavy. Beth tied the left most branch to the railing to help support it through wind gusts. Two delicious tomatoes have been harvested at this point, about 20 are around the corner with a few more showing up every week. It's been a successful outing thus far. I wonder how the radishes are doing...