A Few Small Leeks

I have never had a green thumb. Sometimes I wonder if I have this weird subconscious urge to neglect my plants just to see if I can bring them back to life again. In general, I'm not good at any kind of detailed upkeep. So this year, when I planted my first garden in a while, I figured I'd just put the seeds in the ground, water them a bit, and see what happened. No $64 tomatoes for me. My hopes weren't too high since I live in a cool, foggy place, and sometimes tomatoes never even turn red here. It turns out I had both success and failure. Here are the results of my harvest:

• Eight beautiful, delicious green beans
• Bok choy that matured while we were out of town (the lizard ate the sad remainders)
• Just a little bit of lettuce that provided for a couple of salads
• No sweet peas (the plants all died from some kind of pest)
• Four small, precious pumpkins

And tomatoes! I have three cherry tomato plants that were volunteers from last year's rotted fruit (from a small garden my husband had planted but that had not produced much). These volunteers have been quite productive and completely resistant to all pests and disease. In fact, I am still getting cherry tomatoes even though it's December. I've also gotten a fair number of full-sized tomatoes (they're called Mountain Time--or something like that). At first, they were getting weird spots and had problems, but as the weather cooled, I think the disease or pest was killed off even as the plant kept living and bearing fruit. Therefore, I'm still getting full-sized tomatoes. In December!

In addition, we have harvested from two of my son's experiments. Experiment #1: He took a sprouting red potato and buried it next to the calalilies in the front yard. A few months later: Voila! Two beautiful, delicious red potatoes. Best potatoes I've ever eaten.

Experiment #2: He planted leeks. (So did I, but mine failed.) First he put them in a little critter keeper until they sprouted, and then he put them next to the garden in a reservoir planter. He planted them in July. This weekend, he harvested his leeks. There were only three, and they were small, but they smelled wonderful, and I used them to make potato leek soup. True, he didn't like the soup. But he was proud of those leeks. And I was proud of him.