Pretty Little Things

Our condominium homes have just a bit of garden space.  There is a bed in front, between our two front doors.   It is about 8 feet wide and about 12 feet deep -- and it is in the shade most of the day.  We've filled it up with rambling rose bushes and some sedum and blanket flower.  In back, our patios are bordered by planting beds that are about 2 feet deep and about 16 feet long.  The soil is just miserable, even though we've worked with it for all of the ten years we've lived here.  There seems to be an endless supply of discarded building materials buried out there, and no matter what we do, some chunk of concrete or roofing tile is forever floating to the surface.  Blech!

Still, I keep allowing myself to get all excited every spring.  We would really enjoy fresh tomatoes and some cucumbers and peppers -- or so I tell myself.  How hard could it be?  Containers have been my answer to the crummy dirt...  This year I filled up my containers with some cucumbers and peppers, and I planted a pot of strawberries.  Tomatoes?  My best success has come with those funny tubular hanging planters that grow the plants upside down.  I have four of them.  This year, there are two cherry tomato plants and two that will hopefully grow bigger tomatoes.  Usually, the way this works out, I grow a few really yummy tomatoes each year.  Given what I invest in terms of time, effort, and actual money, they are the most expensive tomatoes on the planet.  Sigh.

Anyway, the cherry tomatoes are beginning to ripen.  Here's my first "harvest."  Aren't they just the prettiest little things?

swan