When my husband and I searched for our house, many moons ago, I was absolutely sure I wanted a house with some property. I grew up on a farm in East Windsor, CT and I knew I liked having space around my home, but never in a million years, would I have imagined how much I would enjoy the spaces and land as much as we have over the past 30 or so years.

When I get my tomato plants ready to put in pots, grow bags, or containers, I have some choices on where to place the containers around my home.

The Driveway

The driveway area located between our garage and house is fairly large. Never would have I thought when we had a wrought iron fence built that it would be a great place to line up tomatoes in pots later in life. The warmth of the paved area is great for keeping the soil warm for the plants, the wrought iron fence serves a bit as a protection from wild animals on the back side, and the garden hose from the house’s outdoor faucet is close enough to reach the potted tomato plants for daily watering in the summer months.

I think the first year that I lined up the pots with tomato plants on this driveway space area, I didn’t need any fencing around it, but the wild animals learned. They (squirrels or chipmunks) started to discover this was “the sweet spot” and thus, the following years, I had to put chicken wire around the pots to protect the fruit from the little critters. The chipmunks were particularly a nuisance one year, because they would creep up and sneak in by going on the backside. The chicken wire I used was attached to a large dog pen portable cage I picked up somewhere. It worked, somewhat but it was a pain to open and close it to get to the fruit at times.

Turns out back then, the driveway area between the house and garage served as a great place to also harden off my tomato plants before planting them in bigger pots. The paved area is level and a great surface to place portable tables there, so again, I could keep the critters away by elevating my starter plants, and for ease of transporting them daily, as I would move them back and forth sometimes from the inside to the outside each day to acclimate them before their permanent home in a large pot.

The Deck and Deck Tables

I knew when we built a wooden deck along the back side of our ranch style home that it would be immediately filled with flowers in patio pots, and it was, but later in life, I started potting up tomato plants and herbs as well. The deck is nice because fresh tomatoes are within reach of our kitchen area. Plus if any wild animals wish to investigate, which they do, such as squirrels, I’m close enough at times to yell at them to get lost. Last year, I decided to put some of the tomato plants in big tubs on an old deck table. I wanted to try to see if it would help from the investigating squirrels. It kind of did. We didn’t have the best weather last year for tomatoes (too much rain) but they were so beautiful and large before we started getting harsh rain storms with damaging winds, etc. Anyhow, using the deck table on the deck was a nice place to put some of the pots. Some of the pots are also on the deck floor.

Because the indeterminate tomato plants will grow taller and taller, I came up with a strategy to take garden twine and s-shaped hooks and train them up to the house gutters. It looks rather messy but heck, it works. I guess I don’t mind the jungle feel of tomatoes on my deck. We can just walk by and grab ripened ones anytime we wish. And yes, I did sit in that cozy deck chair and admire my plants from time to time. That makes them grow better. Didn’t you know that? LOL.

North Side Area by Garage

To the north side of our garage, where our leaching field is located under the ground, is a nice flat open space. Years ago, I considered putting a hoop style greenhouse there because it gets full sun all day but that area gets very hot. There are no shade trees and the lawn bakes there. You can see the grass is usually dry as a bone on this area in the photos below. I didn’t end up putting a hoop style greenhouse there, and I’m thankful because it would get too hot in summer. I could imagine it having to have fans on all the time and things would bake. Plus, often it is not a good idea to build over leaching fields.

Anyhow, one year, I put a rather large black pot there with an Oxheart tomato. The plant grew so large, I wrapped hard wire fencing around it with bamboo poles. The bamboo poles were inserted into the inside of the rim of this large pot that is about 4 feet tall. It worked great – the critters could not climb up the large black pot (because it is large and not easily grabbed onto) to get to the amazing huge Oxheart tomatoes.

I used to drag a very long garden hose up to that area and actually set the hose in the big black pot and let it run for a bit to water it. I developed tennis elbow from doing this here and everywhere for other containers on my property (always too many! LOL), so this area was not the best for watering routines. However, it was probably one of the best spots for keeping animals away. I think the pot’s height and the fact nothing was around it, maybe the animals felt threatened in that area (unprotected) but it definitely kept them out. However, to get to the gorgeous huge 3 lb sized Oxheart tomatoes once they were ripe, I had to get on a step stool to reach down into the plant and carefully grab these huge tomatoes. It was tricky, but worth it.

No matter where I put the containers with tomatoes around my home, I still envision an enclosed garden area in my backyard surrounded by a beautiful white fence with a gate and arbor entrance. Alas, my husband says, that will have to wait until he retires because he never has time to build it. We get lots of wild animals in our backyard, so any fruiting plants must be protected. It would have to be carefully protected with fencing all around and I envision it filled with those square raised beds. Ah, that would be tomato heaven.

Cathy Testa
Container Crazy CT
Zone 6b
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