Again, Some More

How many graduate students do you know who have gardens?

(beat)

Hi!

(photo taken 1 June 2013)

I am lucky, lucky in so many ways but one of the ways in which I am luckiest is that my five-person house has a great backyard, or as the British would say, a garden.

I can't remember when I came up with the idea that I was going to grow things in my garden but I explained it through feeling a bit lost and uncomfortable in my new city of Leeds. Putting down roots, I thought would help.

About a mile from my house is a shopping centre, which has a Poundland. If you're ever in the UK and tempted by a green thumb go to Poundland. Seriously. All of the plants and seeds and soil in that photograph (with the exception of the really long pot on the left) were purchased there. I got my gardening tools and my seed trays there and started off.

My plants took up the entire windowsill but my housemates were very gracious about it. (Also I told them they could eat what I grew, which helped.) They even watered it all when I was away.

The plants grew bigger.

Eventually, by early summer, everything had been planted outside. We had two kinds of tomatoes, parsley, marjoram, thyme, pansies, basil, and morning glories. I bought two rose bushes for a pound but they didn't make it. Here is one side of the garden:

And here is the other:

In my childhood home, we have a little herb garden by the back door. There's something wonderful about being able to walk a few steps and pick something for dinner.

By late November the tomatoes looked even scragglier than the September photograph above. Into the compost they went. I rescued the green tomatoes and put them a brown paper bag to ripen and we used them up until...

TODAY!

Yep, I went home for Christmas and forgot about the brown paper envelope of tomatoes on top of the refrigerator. When I came back, I discovered to my delight that they were still good.

New Year's Resolution: Tomatoes for 2014! And living rosebushes.