Talking Sweet About Nothing

The garden is looking quite healthy these days. You'll notice I moved the perennial herbs in order to maximize space for our tomatoes and peppers. And as you can see everything is coming along nicely. On the left are all of the herbs. Oregano is has quickly gown out-of-control. I need to trim those afros. And you'd never know I pruned those sage bushes down to stumps only a couple of months ago. On the right hand side are a mix of various tomatoes and peppers. In addition to jalapenos, we have Mr. Stripey, Cherokee Purple, Brandywine, Juliet, and San Marzano tomatoes.

San Marzanos, notably, have been designated as the only tomatoes that can be used for a true Neapolitan pizza. Of course, even then, to be "official" they must have been grown in the volcanic soils surrounding Mt. Vesuvius. Believe it or not, there are actually very specific guidelines, and an extensive certification process if a pizzeria wants to be designated a member of Associazione Verace Pizza Napoletana. Me, I'm not that picky. I'm just happy to have home grown tomatoes, even if they are grown in my own, inferior Maryland soil.

Along the back wall, you can see some small sprouts. Those are sunflowers that have just begun to shoot up. We're hoping these will create some shade and absorb some of the heat that bounces off of that white wall.



This window box currently has one small batch of basil and some salad greens. We'll be adding more basil cuttings in the next few days. They're still sprouting roots in our kitchen window. You can also see that we have a few containers for the smaller peppers and tomato plants.



This little patch is at the bottom of our back stairs. You can see the mint is very healthy. It smells awesome. I wish I had gotten a picture a couple of weeks ago. The plant next to mint was in full bloom with dozens of purple flowers. It's called Firewitch (awesome!) The ground cover is called Creeping Jenny, making this part of our backyard totally scary.