Grow Your Own summer

Last summer I had an ill-advised plot in the local community garden. I never got there often enough and every time I returned for a guilt-induced weeding fest it looked like the set of a Tim Burton movie. Long story short, you could call it the opposite of a victory garden. It in fact inspired my new year's resolution to take more advantage of the farmer's markets around here and pick-your-own places because my energy is apparently much better spent in harvesting and cooking than in cultivating.

But with the return of spring weather a craziness comes over me, and this year I decided that a more manageable idea would be to grow the basics: just tomatoes and some herbs in pots on my porch. It was also part of my mission to festoon and enjoy the porch for all the precious months that New England weather allows.

I started off with 6 tomato plants (one yellow, the rest "beef" acquired as starts from the farmer's market) and saddly got going a little late in the season, maybe the first week in june?

I also got some rosemary, basil, lavender, and mint.

My next tragic error was getting pots that were a size too small, but because of this I ended up making a friend.

One night my across the street neighbor, the sweetest older gentleman you ever met, called across and told me it looked like my pots were too small. When I went across to chat he revealed that pretty much he is a tomato-growing guru. There were dozens of plants all around the perimeter of his house and yard, camouflaged behind sunflowers, all grown in buckets and containers. He told me that his wife, who had passed away, used to call him a "pot farmer" because of how he grew them in pots! Ha, as if you weren't a Stoned Soup Club hero already!

As the summer went on he continued to give me pointers (and tomatoes, and sunflowers) and promised me seeds from his patch next summer-- he dries and saves his own, of course.

I spent a lot of time on the porch, the herbs did pretty well and adorned many a summer drink, and I added some mini zinnias and snapdragons in the too-small containers. We got about a dozen small tomatoes from the plants (all except the yellow ones, which tanked) and a lot of know-how for next year.

Further pictures and adventures in green thumbs to come!