Tomato as perennial, and other mysteries

Mid December, and not much rain. I’ve been looking around the garden, and thinking things like should weed and time to prune, but then the sun goes on shining and I lounge instead.

Maybe that’s the theme for this week’s Six on Saturday garden report: plants doing their own thing, with cheerful disregard for expectations. In that spirit, here are my Six:

The Chadwick cherry tomatoes I planted back in March are still going – in fact, I ate tomatoes on my hamburger two nights ago courtesy of this plant. I know tomatoes are supposed to die off in winter, but the Chadwick was the earliest starting, latest continuing, sturdiest, and most productive of all the varieties I tried this year. I’m pretty tempted to see if it wants to over-winter and produce next spring.

The alyssum under the roses is taking off in a lovely way. I’m hoping it keeps going, and out-competes the bindweed.

Speaking of roses, I just love this color.

And returning to the vegetable garden, this broccoli is a monster, in a good way. It’s hard to tell from the photo, but the plant is almost three feet tall. I ate one entire plant of it (a smaller one) a couple of weeks ago, after a gopher severed the roots, but recently there have been no new gopher holes in the vegetable beds, and thus far this plant and the ones next to it are still standing (thank you local cat, fierce and mighty gopher-hunter). I’m looking forward to the flowering broccoli head growing bigger, and meanwhile snacking on a few leaves every so often.

Recent harvest bounty included green tomatoes (yes, Chadwicks); cilantro and parsley, which I can now tell apart by looking at the leaves – a personal victory; carrots; and a few first peas.

And finally, like so many of us, I’m looking forward to the new year, literal and metaphorical alike. I planted some flower seeds. Pink and buttercream poppies, please sprout!

(I’m also realizing this might be one of my more cheerful-sounding posts recently. Happy holidays, everybody! There’s nothing like a change of pace, even if this year it’s a shift in mindset as much as anything else.)

And with that, that’s all for my six this week! Head over to the Propagator’s blog for more gardening Sixes, and glimpses into what other gardeners are gardening, near and far.