This weekend the sky was the color blue we only see a handful of days in Missouri, between the grey of winter and the haze of humid summer, the trees were blooming and the grass was the beautiful yellow-green of spring. It was a perfect day to walk around the yard and dream of planting for summer. We moved “in” from Ballwin almost five years ago, leaving behind the treeless suburban sunny yard for a well-established, much smaller, shaded yard.
We left behind two 8’ X 8’ raised beds where I planted vegetables. The tomatoes and peppers thrived. We also grew some zucchini and pumpkins over the years. (Sometimes I would forget to pick the zucchini regularly and found 2-3 foot long giants the next morning.) The first year I even planted two rows of corn, the biggest waste of space in a small garden – who knew you only got one ear of corn per stalk?
In our new yard I tried tomatoes in tubs, moving them throughout the day to find the sun, but that got old very quickly. Last year we had some dying trees cut down and I found one small space in the middle of the yard had some sun. I planted tomatoes and peppers and re-found the joy of eating cherry tomatoes right off the plant.
Which brings me to the dilemma – do I plant tomatoes again this year? We haven’t started receiving our local food yet, but I have to believe we will be getting a lot of tomatoes, zucchini and peppers when they are in season. These are the easiest to grow in St. Louis and are enjoyable. I asked my family at dinner what they thought and my oldest daughter immediately responded YES! She loves the fresh tomatoes and shares my joy of eating her snack off the plant when out in the yard. But it does seem like a lot of unnecessary work, which may even lead to wasted produce.
What do you think?
