The Fruits of Summer
Having and outdoor space is a wonderful thing, but as we only moved into the new abode two months ago, I got a rather late start on planting. This meant I had to take what I could get at Mazzone's True Value on Court Street when it came to tomato plants. When I bought this beauty, it had two small tomatoes already growing, which I took as a sign of a prodigious future harvest. Two months later, it still has only two tomatoes, and rather sadly I think that's going to be the extent of the pickings. At the very least, one of them is red, so we will get to enjoy a very tasty and small, but rewarding, tomato salad. I also planted a lot of herbs (which I have yet to use, I just like looking at them, I know this is weird), which are doing swimmingly except for the one plant that died, oops. Oh, and the pepper plant my sister gave me refuses to grow--at all--it just sits there and sucks up water. This may all sound banal to many an asphalt-loving New Yorker, but the joy of walking out one's back door and stepping onto a concrete patio to survey the plants kept alive by watering amongst the mosquitos can not be underestimated.
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I don't think that growing herbs and not using them is weird at all... maybe because I've done it myself. We had HUGE oregano, thyme, lavender plants when we were part of the neighborhood community garden and I never want to clip them back. At the end of the season, I'd give them a haircut and dry the clippings for herbs all winter. They're so much tastier. You just have to make sure that the herbs don't burn (if you're putting them in the oven on low heat) and that all the moisture's out (otherwise you'll find a moldy surprise mid-winter).