Funny Thing, Gardening

We're trying again this summer to grow a garden.  I have to admit, it's mostly Brombeere's work, she has done most of the planning, preparation, and planting, along with some help from me and Schwartzebeere.  But, by and large, she's done most of the watering, weeding, and harvesting that's happened so far.  But I do occasionally go out there and poke around.  Anyway, at our house, we really like home grown tomatoes, and as a result, Brombeere, if she grows anything, usually grows tomatoes in the garden. So I was out there the other day, just checking on things, and noticed that the tomatoes are coming along quite nicely.  She has planted several varieties this year.

Cherry tomatoes

She has several bushes of cherry tomatoes growing out there.

More cherry tomatoes

She also planted some regular sized tomatoes this year.  They also look like we'll get a few pretty soon.

She even tried a new kind, black tomatoes.  I'd never heard of black cherry tomatoes before, but she's giving them a try.  And, so far, they look promising.

Black cherry tomatoes

I noticed this morning that way off on the other side of the garden there is also a volunteer tomato that's come up and is flowering. A volunteer from last year's effort. Unfortunately, its late enough if the season that we probably won't get anything off it.  It likely will freeze before it actually has any tomatoes ripen on it.

But the most unusual thing going on, among all the things Brombeere is growing, is the tomato she bought that is fully self-contained.  Its supposed to grow, mature, and produce tomatoes all in the pot it came in.  It actually did produce a couple of tomatoes earlier in the summer.  Alas, the grandkids, who are small and had never been introduced to gardening, saw the little green tomatoes growing and thought they looked like fun little balls.  So they picked them and were playing with them when we saw what they'd done.  They then got their first lesson in gardening, gently but firmly, after which they have done better.  Shortly thereafter, all the leaves shriveled and died and we figured the plant was done.

Imagine our surprise when, still looking all the world like it was dead, that little plant produced another tomato!  Not many of them looked the fully ripe, the bright red color you think of for tomatoes. But they were ripe enough to pick.  One had even fallen off the plant on its own.

So I brought in those that looked ready in and we'll let them ripen the last little bit in the house.  But they sure look and smell nice!  And there's plenty more out there that we hope will get ripe in the days to come.  Good stuff from the garden!