I have been planning all summer to do a weekly update on our little garden but for some reason can’t get it together. Maybe it’s because the gardening process has been rewarding but far more humbling that I thought. I see my perfectionism coming out with my plants kind of like I do with my kids with other areas in my life. 
I work and work and I want it to look good and bear great fruit! We have 4 giant tomato plants…maybe bush is a better term. They went from tiny things to monstrous plants. I counted a couple of weeks ago that we have 40 tomatoes growing, not counting the flowers that appear to be getting new babies going. We tried a topsy turvy planter for some cherry tomatoes and that too has gone a bit crazy. It has been fun for the boys to watch them grow and change color. Jackson is the family cherry tomato picking…or the only legit one. Owen attempts to help but normally picks the green ones, takes a chew and I find them in the atrium after he tosses them. Other than the tomato plantation we have a zucchini plant that has been attached by ants, a pot of sunflowers, and lots of pots of herbs and flowers.
I have found gardening to be a fun way for the boys and I to have time outside and to enjoy picking together. But my, oh my it has been more work than I realized. Every time I think we have the plants all set they go and grow again and need to be retied, etc. I am looking forward to having plants in the ground someday (maybe next year?!) but for now it is all a potted garden. I bought pots for my tiny plants anticipating growth but in no way anticipating this much growth. So I am gone back and forth trying to decide off and on whether or not to move them. I decided a few weeks ago to just let them go. If they die from small pots, so be it. Hopefully they won’t do that until we enjoy some tomatoes. But the cost of new pots was pushing the project from frugal to gourmet.
The beginning…
see, out of control.
So they all got a good pruning and we bought poles to tie them to…
I was hoping to be eating lots of tomatoes when my parents are here. A few are working on becoming red but I have a feeling we will be eating fried green tomatoes!
And here are our first fruits!
They look wonderful and delicious! Nothing is better than home grown. I heard a segment on the radio the other day; they were interviewing a tomato farmer in the South. He said that he was paid by the bushel (or pound or crate) and not paid for the flavor. So his incentive was to produce as many tomatoes as possible, not the best tomatoes possible. He knew which was better, but he was trying to make a living.