I know it looks like Harry is doing all the work here while I lounge around.But the truth is, this photo was taken at about 5:30 p.m. I had been working in the 90 degree heat for about eight hours while Harry was in his hidey hole (what we fondly refer to as his home office) doing WORK work stuff. He emerged to help transplant what I thought was a small specimen tree (a willow whose name I really need to write down).
I say “what I thought was a small specimen tree,” because at the end, it actually took THREE of us to hoist the tree over those baby boxwoods without breaking them. (No, the third person was not the little Papillon Sarah.)
I decided to locate this little willow from its big pot on the back patio to the Colonial theme garden after surveying all the other options at the local garden center. It’s a good thing I did because after two years in that pot, it was getting pretty darn crowded. I didn’t realize that the roots had started to grow out of the bottom. Fortunately, it wasn’t pot-bound, so I expect it’ll be happy in its new home.
Now I need to find some small flowers–probably annuals–that won’t overtake the small boxwoods but will spread and add color. I tried violets and that was a total DISASTER. In no time they were bigger than the boxwoods.
Any ideas for something I can still add now that it’s July? Preferably something that can take me through the fall.
But here’s the BIG news…
I ate my SECOND tomato of the season for lunch. I had it with my homemade neufchatel cheese and homemade bread. YUM!
Harry tried to put it into one of his big salads last night. His salads are loaded with cheese and olive oil, so I figured the precious tomato would get lost. Why waste my very own second tomato, especially when we already had tomatoes from the farmer’s market?
I told him in no uncertain terms that the tomato was MINE! He is still wondering when he will get is very own garden tomato.
This tomato is from a hybrid tomato I planted to compare with the heirloom tomatoes I usually grow. So far, this Beefmaster has produced two tomatoes and has more on the way. The plant is LOADED with tomatoes. The Brandywine and Genovese tomatoes are coming along, but it’ll be a while before I’m eating those.
Does anyone else have tomatoes coming in yet? And here’s the real question: When they do, who gets the first one?
–Robin (Bumblebee)
Hi! I'm Robin Ripley author of Wisdom for Home Preservers, published by Taunton Press. I am also co-author of Grocery Gardening. Bumblebee is about my life in rural Maryland, my garden and my love of food, my little dogs and pet chickens. You can follow me on Twitter, Pinterest and Facebook. Thank you for visiting!
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Robin, thanks for visiting my blog–it led me to yours, and I’m enjoying my visit immensely!
As for the tomato, for 4 years running my dog has actually gotten the first tomato of the season. The last year I was married and living in the old house (where she had the run of the backyard thanks to it being fenced in) she had the first. And the second. And the third, fourth and fifth. Finally I said, "Enough!" and decreed that the pooch would be supervised on all outside visits until the sixth tomato was safely in my hands. lol.
(And I think you’re exactly right about that tomato… would have been totally wasted on that salad, yummy as the salad sounds!)
You have ripe tomatoes already? I’m so jealous. When my first one comes in, it’s cut up for a nice BLT sandwich. The flavor is so yummy when they’re still warm from the sun.
Robin, you should get a post-hole digger for planting trees. I used mine yet again today to put some serviceberry shrubs in the ground. Less effort than a shovel and digs a nice straight hole right into the ground (easy for a guy to use also!)
Hi Ruthie,
Yes, indeed. We need some good post-hole diggers. But until I remember to buy some at the local hardware store (because, God knows, my men never will), it’s really fun to watch them work!
–Robin (Bumblebee)
Hey Kim,
As a dog lover, one of the first things I noticed about your blog was that you are a fellow dog lover. Coco is adorable!
–Robin (Bumblebee)
Carol of May Dreams Gardens has a special dish upon which to display her first tomato.
Robin… As Kathy noted, I did post last summer about displaying the first tomato on a special "dish", if you want to call it that. Here’s a link, please read the whole thing…
http://maydreamsgardens.blogspot.com/2006/08/ritual-of-first-tomato.html
Oh, that first tomato is mine 🙂 The husband and kids had the first several raspberries and strawberries. I have dibs on the tomato! And I know exactly how I’ll eat it: out in the garden, still warm from the sun, probably with tomato juice dripping down my chin.
BTW…homemade Neufchatel sounds absolutely divine. I have yet to meet a cheese I didn’t like 😉
You are killing me! I want to see a photo of the tree! Is it a full-sized tree? Like a weeping variety? Or an airy shrub like the dwarf blue arctic willow (one of my favorites)? Or is it the lovely cream and pink variegated ‘Hakuro Nishiki’ that I’ve seen trained into a standard? Please, I’m dying here! ~A 🙂