A Tale of a Tomato Vine

...or perhaps a tale of an incompetent vegetable gardener!

Not last winter, but the winter before, just after I had begun the garden, I started some cherry tomato seeds.  The initial idea was to grow them in containers on the front patio.  As they grew, I had further ambitions of turning the area under the dining room window into a kitchen garden.

This meant that a few plants got a trial run in a hastily begun tomato bed, while the rest languished in pots in the patio.  (This was before I realized how difficult the front patio was for plants in the warmer months!)

They grew -- the ones in the ground grew fairly well -- and they flowered and set fruit.  And the birds discovered it.

I think I ate about five cherry tomatoes last spring, and the rest went to feed young sparrows and finches.  Vegetation is so sparse around here that I hardly had the heart to complain at the birds, but I did despair of growing vegetables without completely caging them in, which I don't really want to do.

The erstwhile kitchen garden was rethought as the new White and Silver Garden, and I have been plonking plants in it gradually over the last four months or so.  Meantime, since the birds kindly left seeds around, tomatoes sprouted in the original bed, since made over to a growing Arabian jasmine (Jasminum sambac).  I think it's actually only one or two tomato plants though I'm not sure.

The immediate area was still bare, so there was no reason to pull the seedlings out.  I thought I just might get a few tomatoes for my efforts the year before.  After my difficulties with the birds, I decided not to support it, just to let it grow all over itself.  My hope was that the foliage would protect the ripening fruit.  Oddly enough, it seems to have worked.

Until the heat knocks it out completely I am letting it grow on its own terms.  However, letting it grow means it is now sprawling far futher than I had imagined.  I did, in fact, cut it back a bit on Monday and used the trimmings in my Monday vase.  The mighty tomato has headed into the adjacent North Border, where it has draped itself over shrub Hamelia patens, a small pelargonium, a new Osteospermum, and now the Agapanthus that was planted in open soil not so long ago.  In the other direction it is headed toward the Jasminum sambac which is its official replacement.

For now, I am calling it useful shade (the plants beneath look fine), and I am eating tomatoes.  Lots of them.

Weather Diary: Sunny; High: 99 F (37 C)/Low: 66 F (19 C)

In a Vase: Sunshine in a Vase

Heading into summer, I had a lot of material availabe to use in a vase today.  I had already decided to use some of the secondary blooms from the sunflowers, which are beginning to go to seed.  So it made sense to select some other flowers from the same color range.

There is lantana...

...and plenty of Berlandiera lyrata, the wonderful chocolate flower.  Fortunately for vasemaking, it remains open in indoor light, despite a tendency to close under extremely high midday sun.

There are chrysanthemums from my impulse buy last fall, which decided to go on a blooming spree.

There is a single bloom of Aquilegia chrysantha "Swallowtail"...

...and a small sprig of Tagetes lucida aka Mexican tarragon.  I would have used more, but the plant is not large enough yet.

But I suppose the most astonishing addition is foliage and flowers from my tomato vine.

I intend to write a post about the tremendous tomato soon.  Suffice to say, it needed trimming back to allow me to walk along my garden paths.  I felt a few stems could come indoors for today's vase, to which it adds a nice airy effect from the flowers and a tousled look from the many-angled leaves.  Initially it wilted down but then perked up again when settled in the vase.

As you can see, it was quite a mix of flowers!

I used one of my recent handbuilt vases (coiled, not thrown), this one in a dark earthenware clay.

And now I need to start my next batch of sunflower seeds for late season bloom...

Meantime, it's Monday, so I'm linking with the wonderful IaVoM at Rambling in the Garden!

Weather Diary: Sunny; High: 84 F (29 C)/Low: 58 F (14 C)

Racing Along

My fellow gardeners will understand the trepidation with which I have planted a groundcover sometimes known as "Australian Racer".

Myoporum parvifolium "Prostratum" is my attempt to find a solution to a very knotty problem: I need/want low-growing green in my garden paths.  By all accounts it is difficult to find plants which will work for the purpose in this region.  Most are expected to burn out (rather literally) within a few years.

I had intended to use some type of creeping thyme.  But it has been a little hard to locate (itself a warning sign), and I simply don't find it recommended by area gardeners.  English thyme, grown as a herb, yes, but the Thymus serpyllum varieties for use as a thyme lawn, no.

The obvious alternative, and the solution most frequently used here for any purpose, is to fill in with gravel or rock.  But with two acres worth of mostly-bare dirt, I did want a patch of green underfoot in the garden.

So I have finally decided to try a plant whose reputation varies from well-behaved to take-over.  In favor of the chances of it remaining a tame plant, it will receive minimal watering -- another priority which determined my choice as I don't care to spend a lot of water on the paths.  It is stem-rooting in moist soil, which may cause difficulties once it reaches the borders.  However, if it begins to invade them, I shall simply have to pull it out!  I am growing very tired of weedy dirt patches to walk along!

I planted just one to give it a try.  After a few weeks of looking a bit sorry for itself, it seemed to take hold and has begun to fill out into a low clump.  Here it is...

Please pardon the low light on these photos!

The tenacious weeds in the background are one reason I must get something fairly vigorous down as a countermeasure.

It has small leaves of a nice, quiet shade of green and a very low-growing, compact habit -- at least so far!

And it blooms.  While the usual color is white, this one was labelled as "Pink", but the color is not really so strong as all that!   My camera was struggling with too much shade, so the photo looks much bluer than it should.  In reality the hue is a very pale pink.

I'm not holding my breath on this one.  If it works, well and good.  If it doesn't, it will be time for a plan overhaul.  Right now, I am happy with the plant and, of course, hoping I have found a way to go on with my original idea of green paths interspersed with pavers.  But it's too early to tell how this will turn out...

Weather Diary: Fair and breezy; High: 97 F (36 C)/Low: 64 F (18 C)  Yesterday we had a red flag warning - unusual in Maricopa County, presumably because there really isn't much to burn...

Wordless Wednesday: Lemon Drop Yellow

Notocactus leninghausii

In a Vase: Cottage Trimmings

This week's vase came as a spur of the moment idea to use some bits and pieces out of the garden.  It had much to do with the fact that some plants needed a bit of deadheading.  As the garden transitions into summer, things are looking a bit frowzy in places!

So I collected some odds and ends that I thought would combine well in a vase.

The centerpiece is, of course, a full-blown bloom of rose "Wollerton Old Hall".  There is a fair amount of color variation with this variety (at least in my garden), and this bloom aged to nearly white with a little pink at the edges.

There are stems of Cerinthe major "purpurea"...

...and Eschscholzia californica, the California poppy, which is setting its long, slender seedpods...

Also there were some very non-descript bits of Convolvulus cneorum with fluffy seeds replacing the white flowers and pretty foliage nearly hidden in the mix.

Lavender stems were used, coming from both the newly planted Lavandula dentata and the established L. "Goodwin's Creek Gray".

And, yes, a single stem of pink sweet pea "Old Spice Mix" went in among the lavender.

There is, besides, a special first showing from a white lantana, recently added to the White and Silver Garden, where both its color and rugged capacity to bloom in dry conditions will be perfect for the spot.

And now I will go over to Rambling in the Garden to see what other vases are coming in from gardens this week - and especially Cathy's creations for the Big Day!

Weather Diary: Fair; High: 85 F (29 C)/Low: 57 F (14 C)