Il faut cultiver son jardin.

After a couple years of just not caring, I finally got back into gardening a bit.  Nothing particularly high-yield or intensive, as I'm just not invested enough in where I am to wage serious battles against the nuisance wildlife or petition the landlord for better facilities.  Still, the current combination of fruits and flowers is pleasing me.

The particular high-yielders have been the kale which keeps reseeding itself, the sage and the mint.  The squash plants are absolute monsters, but they're producing more flowers than fruit.  (Not a problem, as I've a serious weak spot for squash blossom fritters / omelets.)  My tomatoes aren't doing so well, as, apparently, my random plant purchase at the local Stah Mahket turned out to be a variety that doesn't do so well in containers.

Flower-wise, the now four-year-old geranium plants are absolutely stunning, as are the firecrackers (purchased along with the tomatoes).  Picked up a couple chrysanthemums yesterday to fill in the gaps left from a disappointing cilantro and dill turnout.  The former were kind of expensive for what they are, but seem like good replacements.  I promise a photo of all this in a bit.

Anyway, despite what appears to be a sort of bloom-end blight in some of the plants, the tomatoes are actually producing.  

I'll end up with something, even if we just harvest the fruits while still green.  Turned the housemate on to fried green tomatoes.  Wouldn't mind making green tomato pickles, as I've been craving them lately.  Other options:  green tomato marmalade and chutney.

The only thing lovelier than roasting the seeds from cleaned out jack o lanterns is saving them to plant the following season, because you never know what you're going to end up with.  I swear:  melons / cukes / squashes are the poodle hybrids of the plant world!  

A few years back,  we planted a few seeds from an oversized, kind of watery cantaloupe that the Frenchie brought home from Trader Joe's.  The resulting fruits varied between golf-ball and soft-ball sized;  tasted like a combination between cucumber and cantaloupe.  We found the lovely, pale-green fruits an amazing salad component after chilling them and slicing thinly.

Anyway, this is one of the fruits from last year's pumpkin.  Kind of looks like a combination butternut / zucchini, doesn't it? 

I'm keeping an eagle eye on this one, as I'd really like to both taste it and save the seeds for next year.