Join me in my urban farming adventure. The tomatoes on my deck have done so well the last four summers, that I've decided to see how far I can push the urban "upstairs farmer" thing.
Here's a photo chronicle of this summer's zucchini experiment with helpful captions.
The zucchini in all of their glory, three floors up. The nice man at Gesthemane promised that three plants in one window box would be great, but I am dubious.
Notice that I've placed the window box on the inside of the deck railing, being a little nervous about the impact plummeting window boxes might have on neighborly relations...
Very pretty! And notice the teeny weeny baby zucchini in the foreground? So far so good!
Zucchini growing bigger, this is pretty cool!
I can barely contain my excitement, as the baby zucchini pop out all over the place!
A most teensy zucchini. The first harvest :)
Caroline thinks the teensy zucchini is a toy. But Caroline thinks everything is a toy. Fortunately, although she will eat just about everything, she takes a pass on eating the zucchini.
Uh oh, trouble in paradise. Yellowing, shriveling leaves. Notice, though, that we've taken a leap of faith and put the box on the outside of the railing. It was a choice between taking up too much of the landing, or potentially pelting the neighbor children with zucchini or, worse yet, the entire window box.
Leaves covered in whitish spots. Definitely not good.
Shriveling zucchini. Not good either. But pretty cool big zucchini dangling precipitously, high above unsuspecting neighbor children in the yard.
Meanwhile, the tomato grows...
And grows....
And grows!!
The very first tomatoes, ripening in the sun.
A gratuitous photo of my deck. Vegetables are down the stairs to the right, on the landing.
Preparing to eat homegrown zucchini and the very first tomatoes!
Yum! see "Recipes" section for this Susie summer dinner standby made from combining fresh corn and tomatoes with steamed zucchini and onions and lots of parmesan cheese!