Tomatoes and Peppers

I'm not a big gardener but I dabble a bit:  some flowers and a few veggies.  My dad gives me a potted tomato plant every year, and I used to keep a small vegetable patch in Walpole with my upstairs neighbor. 

My current place is quite shady; there's no place to put in a garden.   One very small corner of the patio gets a good bit if sun late morning through early afternoon.  That's where the tomato goes.  Must be a good spot, because last year I got a volunteer tomato that attempted to grow between the bricks.  It even produced a tomato before something ate the tomato and Irene ripped out the plant.  Bummer.

This year, in addition to my tomato-in-a-cauldron, Dad gave me a second tomato that needed to be re-potted and a tiny pepper plant.  I didn't have a large enough contain for the tomato, so I stuck it in the ground next to the patio.  It's this tiny little plant that hardly looks like much, except that it has a dozen tomatoes on it!  I've staked it up as best I can.  Look at all those tomatoes!

The little plant that could, the mutant pepper and my big tomato plant

Dad said I could have tomatoes by the 4th of July.  I don't think they're going to ripen quite that fast.  But I'm looking forward to some of them soon.

The cauldron tomato looks lush and healthy.  Dad often gives me two types of tomatoes in the single pot.  There are several buds on the one plant and a few plum tomatoes growing on the other.

The poor pepper is stunted.  My dad warned me it may have problems.  It has at least peppers on it, though, and one has turned red.  It's quite leafy, even though it's only 8" high

I can't wait for those tomatoes!  Thanks, Dad!