Balcony Garden: Tomato Plants

Assalamu Alaikum!

Maryam here this week. SubhanAllah! I didn't think I'd be writing up this post to update you all on my tomato plant, because I really thought it wasn't going to make it.

Recap: Two months ago I left you all with this photo of my tomato plants from November last year.

I had sown two in September, but as you can see, after 2 months they hadn't grown much and didn't look strong enough to survive the colder months.

But again, SubhanAllah, one came through and this is how it looked in February.

And then it flowered, masha'Allah.

When March came round, I spotted the first little green tomato.

A week later the plant seemed to go through a growth spurt. I woke up to find it bent over (almost touching the ground!) because of the weight of the many forming tomatoes.

So, I had to find a way to string it up without hurting the plant.

Here it is 11 days later, on the 1 April.

The bottom leaves were browning and some looked like they had been eaten. I suspected there might be a caterpillar on my plant so I started to look. Sure enough, I found the adorable little invader! 

Can you find him in the photo below?

Aside from the caterpillar, my tomatoes seemed to be doing quite well, masha'Allah.

Every other morning I would wake up to find new tomatoes growing, and I am still amazed at how many there are!

Three days ago my first tomato began to turn orange!

Yesterday it was a bright red.

I left it to ripen in the sun for another day. This afternoon... I picked it!

I've stored it in a dark place to ripen a bit more. Insha'Allah we will eat it tomorrow. Masha'Allah, I'm so grateful that it grew and, insha'Allah, more tomatoes will be on the way.

I hope you liked this post. Have you ever grown anything? I'd love to know.

Well that is all for this update. See you next week, insha'Allah.

Take care and wasalaam,

Maryam