Romaine Lettuce, Day 1

Along with the tomato, we planted six romaine lettuce plants. The lettuce was a real winner last season and it should do well this year. Lettuce doesn't need a whole lot of space to grow. A one gallon container is plenty big.

Lettuce does need cool temperatures, which might pose a problem depending on how May shapes up. Last May was fairly cool, with only 91 growing degree days reported. If things get too hot the lettuce will send up a seed stalk, which will make the lettuce bitter. The nice thing about lettuce is how hardy it is. Even when nighttime temperatures plunge into the mid-30s the lettuce will simply take it in stride.

The plants from the nursery seems to be a few weeks along and might give us a first salad in about a month. Check out last season's lettuce results here.

Getting a Jump on the Season: Grape Tomatoes, Day 1

Despite my landlord's inexorable march toward transforming my gardening space into full-time parking, the Frange defiantly welcomed its first tomato plant of the season. Oddly named a Grape Sweet Olive Tomato, this was one of the only tomato plants available at the nursery. It's way too early for tomatoes in New England, but the idea is that if the plant is brought indoors on cold nights, it will be able to get a jump on the traditional Memorial Day weekend starting time for tomatoes. Until things heat up, and evening temperatures begin to stay above the mid-40s, the plant will repair back to the warmth of my kitchen every night.

UPDATE: This plant performed quite well in a container. While not as prolific as other varieties, it was a solid producer. The fruit wasn't quite as olive shaped as expected, but they were'nt perfectly round, either. The flavor of the tomatoes was generally good but not spectacular. All in all, it tasted like a regular cherry tomato bought at a megamart. It didn't have the extra sweetness of other varieties like Super Sweet 100s.

So, You Want to Grow Tomatoes in Containers

If you're a renter or even a homeowner with more blacktop than soil, gardening can still be in reach. With a little common sense growing tomatoes in containers is simple and super rewarding. As a city kid, farms were places where people went to get poop on their shoes and discover strange allergies. Not to get too hippie-granola, but being insulated from the production of the food supply robbed me of the joy of growing food. Growing tomatoes in containers is a great introduction to gardening. And, remember, we're growing tomatoes. This isn't rocket science or even learning how to set up your voicemail.

Containers
See my earlier post on what type of container to get. For cherry tomatoes, five-gallon buckets are a good starting point. You can certainly go bigger, but don't go smaller. Your plants will suck and cause you to lose face at the next rotary meeting.

Soil
Don't cheap out with soil and don't dig up some dirt from your backyard. It, too, will suck. Growing plants in a limited amount of soil means you'll have to make that soil kick ass. Spring for a big bag of potting soil. It's made to drain efficiently and will do just fine in a container. Be careful not to get garden soil. It's made for God's green earth, not Home Depot's orange buckets. I've had great success with Miracle-Gro's potting soil. It's not the cheapest stuff, but it's got fertilizer built in, which should last for a month or so.

Plant Type
Go with something small, especially if this is your first time out. Stay away from varieties that connote monumental proportions. They've got names like Big Boy, Beefsteak, Mortgage Lifter, et cetera. (I'm sure it can be done, but it could be quite a lot of work for a small harvest.) Choose something in the cherry variety. Sungold and Supersweet 100 are solid choices. Sungold, especially, is very popular and is the, ahem, gold standard for those who run in the cherry tomato crowd.

Seed or Transplant?
Transplant. You'll save a lot of time with a transplant, but you'll be stuck with what your plantmonger is offering. Transplants obviously cost more than seed, but, all in all, they are cheaper than a trip to Starbucks or Dunkin' Donuts, depending on how you sway. Stay away from large plants. Get in early and snatch up some plants in those blister packs. They are cheaper.

Determinate or Indeterminate?
Either or is probably fine. Determinate plants grow to a preset size whereas indeterminate plants keep going until the liquor runs out or the cops break up the party. I have had good success with both. Don't sweat this too much, but realize that indeterminate plants require a bit more work in the form of pruning and general maintenance but they'll keep putting out fruit until the frost.

Gardening Tools & Accessories
Get a few basic things but don't go overboard. Get a hand trowel and possibly a cultivator (that's the thing that looks like a claw). Those are probably all the tools you need to get. A watering can might be nice, but a hose or old milk jugs work just as well.

You'll also want fertilizer. Working with so little soil, the tomatoes will suck nutrients out quickly. Miracle Gro, which gardening snobs (yeah, they do exist, just wander over to gardenweb and read some posts) love to hate, gave me good results last year. It's pretty cheap but not exactly organic. If you can swing it, explore some more natural ways to fertilize.

Stakes will be essential and you should get some. Your tomatoes can't really sprawl about so you'll have to stake them up using string. The bamboo ones will probably last a season. Metal ones will last until rusted through. Plastic ones will be here until kingdom come but might fail under the pressure well before that. It's a classic tradeoff between price and performance. Bamboo is the cheapest and is a good starting point.

Timing
Generally, you'll want to plant when there's any threat of frost has dissipated. However, you've got portability on your side. If you plant a bit too early and the forecast calls for frost, simply bring your containers inside into a garage, basement, or living room. Return them to the outside the next morning. This will allow you to get a jump on traditional gardeners. Of course, the more containers you have the more impractical this becomes. If you're not sure ask the sullen teen behind the counter at the garden center for some advice.

Advantages
Containers give gardeners superb control over soil conditions and pests. Encased in plastic, soil-borne insects won't be much of an issue. Other insects, like hornworms, will have to be dealt with.

Disadvantages
Containers dry out quickly, especially once the heat of summer sets in. Watering will be a at least a daily chore, if not twice daily. Plants also don't get lots of room to spread out and grow until their genetics start throwing on the brakes. Lastly, large tomato plants in containers tend to act like sails and must be weighted down.

Tools of the Container Garden Trade: 5 Gallon Containers

As pizza is to a pizzeria, containers are an essential part of any container garden. My favorite container is the standard five gallon utility bucket, which can be found at just about any hardware store for only a few bucks. They are incredibly durable but extremely ugly. It's a cruel tradeoff. Before using, be sure to drill a bunch of holes in the bottom, otherwise water won't be able to drain out. A drill seems like the easiest way to do this. I've heard of people heating screw drivers to punch holes. That's dumb. Get a drill and do your work over a sheet of newspaper so that the carved out plastic doesn't go everywhere.

Springtime Crocus

Teel Street, Arlington, Massachusetts
March 29, 2006

Flowers on Thorndike Street

Arlington, Massachusetts
April 20, 2006

Dividing Chives

These garlic chives are very hardy. They survived the entire winter outside and then began sending up new growth in mid to late Februrary. Started from seed sometime last June, they've become quite rootbound. They are so packed in that water slips right through the container. This is a perfect time to divide this plant.

Having never done this before, I improvised and used a bit of commonsense as my guide. After wetting down the root system, I used a trowel to divide the plant into quaters. Without a doubt, I was tearing apart roots, but this is a resilient plant and it should transplant nicely.

Once the plant was divided up I rounded up several sizes of containers. It's hard to say just how deep of a container this plant needs, so it'll be interesting to see how it does in a range of sizes. Mixing together old soil from last year with some new stuff, the chives were set flush with the new soil line. Finally, I mixed up some Miracle Gro and gave them a good watering.

Chives supposedly bloom in May or June, so I've got my fingers crossed. Either way, they look great in a pot. Here are the finished results. I hope they will begin to spread out and fill the containers.