Let's get this harvest started

Finally! Last night I picked our first tomatoes (not counting the few marble-sized White Coyotes). They are the Sweetgold Yellow cherry variety and they were hiding out under the protective leaves of their plant. I would share a picture, but the camera is in Zurich, Switzerland right now with Jon.

For me, growing tomatoes is like a water drip torture. The plants become flushed with fruit, and then you wait, and wait, and wait. It seems like an eternity from the time the fruit appears until it ripens. I estimate that we have several hundred tomatoes 'on the vine' right now. I'm hoping that we will be overrun with ripe tomatoes here shortly.

I should reassure everyone that the oil tank is hundreds of feet away from our garden and even I am confident that there is no danger of contamination. I am typically very concerned about chemicals and petroleum products. I hate the fact of the thing in my yard to the extent that I walk all the way around the 20' shed just to avoid being anywhere near it. Realize that this is more of a personal statement and that snubbing the tank does not serve any practical purpose.

We avoid using chemicals (either pesticides or fertilizer) in the yard, the trade off being that our lawn is a melting pot of grass, violet, clover, plantain, and other low-growing plants. But hey, it's green, and when a plague descends on all of the monoculture fescue covered lawns in our neighborhood, we will be alright. I guess the other consequence of not using chemicals in the yard is that we spend alot of time weeding. The benefit of hand weeding is that you get up close and personal with your plants.

The flower beds are looking really nice right now. I will leave you with this photo of a canna lily and will post more flower pictures as soon as the camera, I mean Jon, comes home. Which is tomorrow, by the way. I can't wait to have Jon home again!