My "prize winning" tomato

So, we decided to plant a vegetable garden this summer for the first time ever. Nothing too extravagant, just a 3X8 foot container garden. We planted tomatoes, cucumbers, lettuce, basil, parsley, cilantro, peppers, and squash.

The lettuce was fantastic, but ended up being too good. We couldn't keep up with the supply and eventually the lettuce bolted and became bitter. The cilantro also proved to be challenging. It just has such a short growing cycle before it wants to produce seed that you're left with a short window of when you can use it. I tried picking off the flower buds, but eventually I was picking off dozens of flower buds a day and I just couldn't keep up. I love cilantro, but I'm not sure I'll grow it again next summer. We'll see.

The cucumbers ended up growing much more than I expected as well. I had to install some make shift fencing to get them to climb up rather than overtaking the entire yard. At least they have produced a nice steady supply of vegetables, which we have more or less been able to keep up with.

But the most impressive have been the tomato plants. In the end, I put them too close together, as I didn't know they would grow as much as they did. We ended up with a densley packed forest of tomato bushes which completely dwarfed some of the other plants we had growing nearby. We had three varieties of cherry tomatos, and those have been my favorite, as the fruits mature at a nice pace so that every day we have a new crop of newly ripened tomatos.

We had a few large tomato plants as well, but I have been less impressed with them. I think mostly because they only seem to have a few tomatoes per plant, so it seems like a lot of work and effort for just a few tomatoes. I do have one "prize winner", though. I'm saving this one for a special occasion and I'll be really curious to see how it tastes. The coke can is to provide some perspective.