before leaving

i took this last picture, please excuse the state of the lawn. I broke the lawn mower several weeks ago.

I took it mostly to show that i DID weed, and also i tied up the tomato plants in my own extra-special way. I had originally planned to tie each plant very carefully to it's stake, like a proper person should do. But since it was so out of control when i got back that i could not even see the path, i instead did it differently -- i tied rope around the perimeter of each bed, in effect making four giant tomato cages.

It seems to have worked. So far.

Look, proto-eggplants! These are that Turkish Orange variety.

When i was away, my neighbor came and ran the sprinkler for my tomatoes, and on one occasion she brought her father-in-law. Apparently he was really eyeing my tomatoes, with comments like 'wow, i have not had a good home-grown tomato in ages'. Uh-huh. Good thing i planted around 50 plants -- there should be enough to go around...