August 18, 2011

Watertown, MA. August, 2007


When I started househunting several years ago, I wanted a single-family home with off-street parking in a quiet neighborhood. Oh, and a little backyard. Just enough for a few tomato plants. Presenting my tiny summer garden, which I plant according to a different recipe or two each year. Here you can see tomatoes and more tomatoes. Also some pots of basil and parsley. What you can’t see are the green peppers (got nary a one this year from six plants) and the dill, mint and scallions. Just enough to make Itch (Middle Eastern grain salad) once I buy the bulghur. And some salmorejo (a cold gazpacho-like soup from Córdoba) when the tomato plants all start to produce at once. The cucumbers have pretty much come and gone by late August. The parsley is the last to go, usually right after Thanksgiving. And last year, my generous neighbor Alice and her husband gave me access to their super-abundant garden during their month’s vacation in Maine just as the tomatoes were coming into season. “Don’t let the tomatoes go to waste!” Thanks, Alice. Gazpacho and homemade tomato sauce forever! With some of my own basil and parsley thrown in for good measure.

1 comment:

  1. Wonderful! Reminds me of Chinese "penjing" gardens, which I adore. Not the overly manicured formal Chinese gardens, but the postage stamp-sized gardens of the proletariat. A tiny plot (even just a just a high-rise apartment ledge) which is lovingly laid out with pebbles and a few doted-upon plants. The most magical garden in the world because it's "you" and you're "it".

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