Hurry Up and Wait

Let me start off by saying, that I was so happy to see so many other blue hydrangea lovers from my last post!  The ones pictured in that post are not at my house sadly, but at the house our children are renting together.  They truly are beautiful and practically surround the house and little white shed, so I get to enjoy them even if they aren't in my own backyard!

But speaking of my backyard, there are some things I do get to enjoy right outside on my small patio.  Because we decided not to do a big garden, we have pots of veggies, herbs, and flowers out there for easy access to our kitchen.

One of the things we have growing in big containers are tomatoes.  We have two varieties, Arkansas Traveler, an heirloom variety, and Big Beef, pictured above.  The big beef set fruit awhile ago, but they still haven't started to turn red yet.

The Arkansas Travelers are also coming along nicely, and may actually ripen first since they are a smaller variety than the Big Beef.  Anyone who has ever grown tomatoes can vouch for the fact that once you see tomatoes on the vine you have to just resign yourself to waiting.   It's very much a hurry up and wait kind of thing, where you nearly have to threaten each tomato before it will begin to change color and fully ripen.  Many a gardener/farmer has needed to have cross words with tomatoes in order for them to reach maturity and be ready to eat.  Right now I'm doing a sort of casual ignoring of them in hopes they will turn red and be ready for a BLT sandwich, but if I have to, I will bring out the big guns and threaten them.  ;-)

Two things that require no coaxing are mint pictured above...

And lemon balm...these two are prolific producers who often become pests in the garden.  I don't mind if they spill over the patio and decide to establish themselves in our yard, but some people hate that they will take over a space given the chance.

Here is the mint making a break for it over the side of the patio.

We also planted some "spicy" oregano this year.  It seems like ordinary oregano to me, but if they want to give it a fancy name, that's fine by me.  It is yummy, and I love taking snippets of it and adding it to some of my dishes.

The oregano will pair nicely with my tomatoes to make a yummy gluten free lasagna when the time comes.

And here is a little color to mix with the green herb and tomato plants.  I have a large planter filled with pink verbena and hot pink geraniums.  Both are really striking in color and give the patio a pop of color, while giving the bees a little treat too.

You can't tell from these photos, but these planters are all pretty large, and take up one whole corner of the patio.  With the steady rain we've had all spring and summer, everything is lush and beautiful at the moment.

I made a little deal with mother nature this year to think only good thoughts about frequent rain, and she seems to have accepted the deal and has been very generous with her watering...including a big storm this evening that gave everything a thorough soaking.

I hope mother nature has been kind to you wherever you live, and let's all think really hard about my tomatoes ripening so that I won't have to hurry up and wait much longer!