My Windowbox Tomatoes!

Well......I feel like a proud parent! This year I made the decision to  grow tomatoes and strawberries in my windowboxes instead of my usual flourish of flowers. I have tumbler tomatoes growing in a basket but these are different.....Sweet 100 is the variety , promising me loads  of tomatoes between now and autumn! I wasn't sure if they would fruit, because I am up on the third floor, but when I went out this morning there were loads of little babies all over the stems! My secret is Osmocote, a long lasting fertilizer that delivers food continuously for 4 months. Also containers are more of an effort because they do need watering every day. The other trick that I've discovered is that I have flowering herbs growing on my patio as well, namely anise hyssop which really attracts honeybees and other pollinators. I also have these planted with French Marigolds and from the beginning they have loved each other! I have noticed much less of an aphid population in my little ecosytem, and I think that it's because of the marigolds. As soon as I planted them, the insects dissapeared!

Yumm.....I'm dreaming of tomato salad with fresh mozzerella and basil!