Stop putting your tomato pots on the railing ledge

I see so many people in this group posting pics of their tomatoes sitting right on that narrow balcony railing and it scares me. Last week a storm rolled through my neighborhood here in Portland and I watched a guy's whole setup fall three stories onto the sidewalk below. The pots were those cheap plastic ones from a big box store and they just tipped right over when the wind gusted. I install fences for a living so I know how much force wind can put on things up high. If you're gonna grow tomatoes on a balcony you need to secure the pots to the railing with wire or bungees at minimum. Has anyone else had a pot blow off or am I just seeing the worst case scenario?

2 comments

2 Comments

angela_coleman15d ago

People are so casual about gravity until it reminds them who's in charge. I've lived in apartments for years and the stuff I see people trusting to railings and window sills is wild. It's not just tomatoes either, I've watched someone lose a whole herb garden and another time a little ceramic planter that took out someone's windshield when it fell. We all act like a sunny day is the only kind of weather that exists, but one rogue gust and you're picking chunks of terracotta off the sidewalk. You're not seeing the worst case, you're seeing the warning everyone else ignores until it's their pot on the news.

betty_scott1815d ago

Wait till they figure out winds don't check the forecast before knocking stuff over. I've seen a single gust turn a tomato garden into a sidewalk salsa mess.