Productive terrace trio with tomato, courgette, and pepper

The Productive Terrace Trio brings together 3 vegetable plants that are easy to grow, productive, and space-saving, well suited for container gardening. A selection that will allow gardeners without a garden to harvest and cook their own sun-kissed vegetables on their terrace or balcony. The young plants should be placed in full sun, in a sheltered location, as soon as the risk of frost has passed. Regular watering and fertilizing will promote flowering and fruit production, which can be harvested from July to October.

This trio consists of:

1 grafted Tomato Gagliardo F1 plant: semi-early, productive, and disease-resistant, this Andean Horn-shaped hybrid produces uniform, fleshy fruits, elongated, in the shape of a horn or chilli pepper, weighing 120 to 130 g. Not very juicy and seedless, these tomatoes are consumed in salads, as coulis, or stuffed. Maturity size of the plant: 1.5m (5ft) in height by 50cm (20in) in width. Grafted plants provide additional vigour that helps vegetables establish and produce more quickly in cool climates, and resist more diseases or pests. They are early and robust with a high yield potential.

1 mini plug of Easy Pick Green F1 Zucchini: a particularly easy-to-harvest hybrid variety. Thanks to its spineless petioles and its open and airy habit, its beautiful long, smooth, slender, dark green zucchinis are easily accessible and of very good taste quality. In cooking, it is often used: sautéed, fried, gratin, soup, or stuffed, and of course, it is part of the ingredients of ratatouille. It can also be consumed raw, grated, and mixed with other raw vegetables. Maturity size of the plant: 50cm (20in) in height by 1m (3ft) in width.

1 mini plug of Bellania Organic Pepper: This hybrid variety offers violet, almost black fruits that will be very decorative on the table and become sweeter when they turn red at maturity. Sweet and sugary, very digestible, it is a fruit that can be consumed raw in salads, marinated, or cooked in ratatouille, stuffed, skewered, or as a side dish with meat. Mature size of the plant: 80cm (32in) in height by 30cm (12in) in width.

Harvesting:

- Harvesting tomatoes is done when they have taken on their final colour and when their texture, while remaining firm, shows a slight softening. For better preservation, be sure to pick the fruit with its stalk. Be careful, immature fruits, stems, and leaves contain solanine and should not be consumed.

- Zucchini should be harvested by cutting the fruits with pruning shears. Harvest young and tender zucchinis, without allowing them to grow too large (on average every 2 days during peak season). Regular harvesting will promote the development of new fruits. You can also harvest the male flowers (preferably in the morning) which can be consumed fried or stuffed. Male flowers, which will not produce fruit, appear on thin, long, non-swollen stems.

- Pepper should be harvested by cutting the stem with pruning shears or a knife.

Preservation:

The optimal storage temperature for tomatoes is between 10 and 15°C (50 and 59°F). Refrigeration is possible but alters the taste qualities of the fruits. For longer preservation, tomatoes can be dried, frozen, canned, cooked into jam, or made into confit. To confit them, cut your tomatoes in half and collect the juice. Place your half tomatoes face up on the baking sheet of your oven. Add salt, pepper, sugar, and then bake at a very low temperature for at least one hour. Remove your tomatoes, store them in a glass jar, and cover with olive oil.

Zucchinis can be stored for a few days at room temperature or in the bottom of the refrigerator, or cut into pieces and frozen for several months. Place a slate or tile under the fruit so that it is no longer in direct contact with the ground, thus avoiding rotting due to moisture.

Peppers and Chili Peppers can be stored for several days in the refrigerator. They can also be frozen or dried.

Gardening tip: To reduce watering, we recommend mulching the soil with thin successive layers of grass clippings, if possible mixed with dead leaves. This protection, which keeps the soil moist, also limits weed growth.