A Few Small Treasures (we ate the rest)

We have a little patio.  And in our little patio we have two little(ish) planters.  And in those two planters?  Oh - tomatoes, both roma and beefsteak, and peppers (banana and jalapeno) and squash (yes, squash...which is actually, um, quite squashed in there, and we have one in each planter) and weirdest of all, a purple cabbage, which I didn't realize until recently it was one, and now I can't figure out if it's done and ready.  Or not?

I really like the idea of kitchen gardens, but I also have the uncanny ability to kill a plant by looking at it.  So when my dad, who was visiting two years ago, wanted to get me some plants I really wasn't very enthused.  He still went ahead and bought us a whole bunch of flowering plants, some of which were annuals, so when they eventually died I wasn't wracked with guilt.  Some were perennial, like a little silvery shrub thingy, and another plant called Autumn Joy (if I'm not mistaken), as well as a lovely honeysuckle, that were kind enough to survive on me and COME BACK THIS YEAR!  We already had a few pretty mature bushes of Rose of Sharon, so the patio did look very nice when everything was blooming.  Plus we get hanging baskets each year filled with assorted blooms, and little pots of geranium, and well, yes, it looks very pretty.

But this year when my parents visited my dad got adventurous and got us the afore-mentioned greenery for the two planters that had been sitting around with only soil in them.  And now the tomatoes are hanging in bunches, and the peppers seem to be endless!  There's a basil plant too, bought especially at my request, coz I loved the idea of eating a panini sandwich with fresh mozzarella, tomoatoes and basil (yum!), but this basil plant doesn't seem to know when to stop.  It's just getting bigger and bigger, and I think I'll have to hand out bunches of basil to all the neighbors soon.

So not only did I succeed in not killing them, they are thriving! 

OK, enough talk.  Look at our latest pickings!  And notice the bite marks on the tomato?  Thank you, Mr. Fuzzy, our friendly neighborhood squirrel.  It's going in the guacamole anyway, so there.