Indoor gardens or kitchen gardens are all the craze now, plus with the space constraints of flat-owners who have little balcony or open areas to themselves, the idea of container gardening holds much appeal as it allows them healthful, beautiful gardening pleasures – even in limited space! So, if veggies, fruit and salads are a hot favorite with you, a great option to get these cheap and fresh – minus the pesticides – is to grow your own. For example, tomatoes are easy to grow and take up very little space and effort to grow, which is very appealing to beginners at gardening in containers. They also have mass appeal for besides salads and sandwiches; tomatoes are a great ingredient for gravies, Italian cooking and so many other great-tasting international recipe ideas.
This versatility of tomatoes for use as culinary basics is what counts for it being such a great idea for growing in containers and with these now selling for over three dollars for a pound, the advantage of having your own kitchen garden is hard to ignore.
What is most important for a beginner to know about growing tomatoes in containers is that sunshine and big containers are the basics for growing these well – and of course the time at hand to tend to them from time to time. You also need a set of basic gardening tools and a hose-pipe to water the plants well instead of making frequent trips to the kitchen for a watering container besides 5 gallon pots to begin planting them in as tomato plants (only one per container) take up room as they grow, so you need to be prepared for that eventuality.
You may need to put the tomato seedlings (or you can purchase seeds) in soil and place wooden stakes for holding up the plants when they grow tall; tie a bit of string to the tomato plant stalk and bind this around the stakes. Use plenty of fertilizer and place a plastic drainage tray underneath the plant container as this is very important for the tomato plant to flourish.
You also need to learn about the various kinds of tomato plants there are in the market so you know the kind of tending the one you bought requires: for e.g. the bush varieties of tomatoes are simple to grow, but so are cherry tomatoes, which are cute in comparison and used for decorating foods.
Some people prefer the full-size tomato plants, which is also good enough to grow in small spaces or else you can try for the Early Girl, Celebrity and Christmas Grape variety; choose the one that suits your cooking/eating purpose. Salads do well with the cherry or grape variety of tomatoes, for example.
Another important factor that tomato growers need to keep in mind is to ensure watering and sunlight is available to the plant in adequate doses: 4-6 hours in the sun is needed everyday besides sufficient water.
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