Gardening question....

[Sarlon]

so my new house, is nice but my back porch is rather bland. I have no back yard to speak of, and my front yard is to public being less then 30 feet from a major road.

I want to plant some herbs, and maybe a tomato plant or 2 in pots.

Anyone have any good advice on how to go about this? the porch is uncovered and gets southern sun almost all day except very late in the afternoon and very early after the sun comes up.

Herbs would include catnip, basil, mint, corriander, Parsley.

As for the tomatos, mostly just standard ones, not cherry or roma, since I plan on making my tomato sauce from these.

[Magpie]

What size pots are you thinking? I personally am a big fan of the Lee Valley planters, not just because they're self-watering (so you can leave them for a couple of days and your plants won't die of thirst), but also because they're big enough that I'm not worried about there not being enough space.

Pretty much everything you list is happy with full sun, so you don't need to worry. Remember that mint will take over anything if given the chance, and it can choke itself out in a planter. Dig some of it out/cut it back so it can't choke itself or anything else out. The cilantro needs really insane sun. Full summer should do it, but what latitude are you? My inlaws grow it (we're around 44N here), and it does ok, but it gets a little leggy.

You will probably want cages for your tomatoes. They'll support the plants as they grow. If you have a lot in the way of critters in your neighbourhood (i.e. you live in a city), you may need to put chicken wire around the plants, as I've had ones that I think the squirrels got.

[jedimaster91]

If you want to plant tomatoes, I would suggest growing a second type of tomatoes (like a grape or cherry variety) to keep the squirrels busy. And definitely invest in some good cages reinforced with chicken wire. Mint needs its own pot and thin it out regularly.

As far as planters go, Papa Jedi, Mr Jedi, and myself really like the EarthBox. It's another self-watering box and you could fit a crap-ton of herbs in there.

[ArcticChicken]

I don't know much about gardening, but I do know that my boyfriend absolutely loathes squirrels, because when he was a kid the squirrels ate all the tomatoes from his garden.

[Sarlon]

funny thing about squirrels.....my parents live smack in the middle of town and are hardly bothered by them....course they have dogs that love to chase them, and a MASSIVE (150 - 200 year old) black walnut and a smaller pecan tree in the yard.

Thanks for the advice...I'll have to see what my budget can afford, but those self watering planters sound like a good investment, since I'm often out of town house sitting for my mother.

[RetailWorkhorse]

Squirrels = GREAT target practise.

Cages for the 'maters = GOOD.

Other than that, herbs and 'maters are pretty easy to do. 'Taters, too. Just pick up some 'taters and bury them in one of the big blue water drums. It'll sprout and grow more tubers during the year, so all ya gotta do is tip the barrel over and you'll have real nice sized 'taters near the bottom.

[jedimaster91]

Tire stacks work well for potatoes, too. Just add another tire as the plant grows, add more dirt, and at the end of the season you have lots of potatoes.