The Tomatoes Are Coming! Maybe!

That's right, after all this time and all these blog posts, there are actual tomatoes on my tomato plants. I know, I can't believe it either. Specifically, there are four tomatoes, each on a different plant.

This is not, I have to admit, the kind of generous bounty I was anticipating when I planted them. (Another thing I'm admitting: my camera is no longer what you would call fully functional. Possibly, after ten years, it may be time for a new one.) But it's more than I've been expecting, after losing almost half of the plants to a mold that wiped out an entire planter, and watching the remaining plants bloom for weeks to no avail.

I was starting to wonder if I was simply growing the world's ugliest flower garden when the first of the fruits popped up. And I'm going to have to assume that it is not entirely a coincidence that it happened not long after I took the advice Lisa posted on her blog (Which, by the way, she really needs to update more often. Also, other people should go there and comment, because I'm starting to feel a little creepy for having most of the comments be me.)

For those of you allergic to clicking through (have you tried calamine lotion?), she suggested that, in the absence of a local bee colony, hand-pollinating may be called for, so I sacrificed one of my eyeshadow brushes to the cause and did my best.

Which may not have been that good, since I've only got four green tomatoes, and no guarantee that they will ripen successfully. But hey, that's almost enough for a salad.