I Have Tomatoes!!

Every summer for the past six years, I have tried to plant a garden. And every summer, I have failed miserably. Some people have green thumbs. Mine are black. As my friend, Leta (who has beautiful plants, so I'm not sure what she is talking about), is so fond of saying, "Some people play Name That Tune. I play Kill That Plant."

I have ONE houseplant that is still alive. Because it is a philodendron (you can't kill those)--and it is a cutting off of my grandmother's (every time I look at it, I think of her). And technically, it belongs to M (and I would be a bad mother if I let it die).

So this year, I decided I wasn't going to fight it anymore. No garden. I was happy to let the weeds and bugs take it over, or if B was so inclined, he was certainly welcome to plant grass back there.

When I told him this, however, he got a sad, "puppy dog" look on his face. "No tomatoes?" He asked. As I explained to him that I don't have it in me to fail one more year, I was thinking Does he have another house and family and garden that actually PRODUCES somewhere?? And he must be getting us confused with that one.

I, of course, told him that if he wanted to plant something back there, he was more than welcome to go for it. But I wasn't responsible for any of it. He said fine. All he wanted was a few tomato plants.

I forgot how ambiguous the word "few" is. He planted ELEVEN tomato plants back there!! And I'll be darned if 9 of them aren't bearing fruit at an alarming rate!

This is what my counter looks like.

So, bring on the salsa recipes!! But please do it quickly, because B is going to be out of town all next week and the temperatures are supposed to soar above the 100s. So I'll probably have all of those lovely plants killed by the time he returns!