For once I feel like I have a jump on the garden for the year. Usually I am frantically trying to remember to go get some tomato starts right about now. This year I planted my heirloom seedlings nearly a month ago. Hooray for me! Head pats all around.

I got two kinds of tomato: Boxcar Willie and Caspian Pink. Evidently Caspian Pink is supposed to do well in the partial shade, which is what we have, but Boxcar Willie is the one actually setting fruit so far. Go figure. They're both a respectable size, so I feel pretty good about them.


I also grabbed a jalapeno seedling, which you can see in the background on the right. It's maybe 1/3 as tall as the tomatoes, but that makes sense--jalapenos are hot-weather plants, and we haven't yet fallen into the real hot weather of summer for more than a day or two. There have been a few flowers, but not too many yet. We'll wait for the outburst of July.

The herbs are doing well. This guy is my delightful oregano plant, which has been super excited to be out in the yard for the entire winter. It's about a foot and a half in diameter, which is pretty gigantic. I suspect bolting, which is ok, considering how long it's been in the ground. Herbs!


I've never put basil in our actual garden bed (mostly because it's always been way too full of tomato vines to cram much else in), but this year I did. Is two plants enough? Who can say in this brave new day and age? They seem to be doing well so far, in any case.

And of course the plum tree is full of baby plums, and the pineapple guava tree is covered in flowers, and the backyard is regularly full of clouds of rampaging birds and bees and squirrels and even neighborhood cats.

Hooray, garden! I'm so excited to see how many tomatoes I get this year.

What are you planting in your gardens?