The Accidental Gardener

I have never really grown anything edible on purpose. I grew up in a house where TV dinners packed in shiny aluminum trays were the newest modern convenience, vegetables came from cans and Wonder Bread was a "natural food".

I have attempted the occasional avocado pit suspended by toothpicks in a glass jar and the top cut off a pineaple stuck in the sand. But really, since my mai tai days are long past and modern convenience is even more of an issue, frankly my fresh pineapple comes freshly cut in a plastic container that only finds roots in the cupboard until I realize it's been there so long it's time to recycle.

I have a tangelo tree that came with my house but it was already there and it already came with fruit attached - sort of an outdoor grocery store. It will soon be gone because the oak in the back yard is now so massive that the tangelo lives in its shadow. It gets smaller every year and by the end of next summer will be gone. Since It doubles as an orchid hanger I will have to start giving the orchids better homes.

This year, I decided to plant a few edibles. Not a victory garden per se, unless I can count it as a victory against drought and pestilence! It started with the pepper. My very expensive yellow pepper had a little pepper shaped nodule inside so I decided to plant the whole middle in a tiny pot to see if it would grow. And so it began - a huge clay pot, expensive dirt, a tomato plant and some basil for good measure. Tomato sauce, here we come!