inch by inch, row by row

Awhile back, we planted a few container gardens. Tomatoes, peppers and eggplant. Oh and some cucumbers, too. We had high hopes for ... well anything! Our harvest thus far has been meager, to say the least. The tomatoes, especially, are looking pretty sad. The pumpkins, however are growing like gangbusters. We didn't plant them. One of last year's jack o'lanterns that never got carved was left in a corner of the side yard and this spring the seeds sprouted. We let the vines go, they seem to really like it there.

Last night I bought some new tomato plants. I'm going to put them in along the fence behind the pumpkins. I figure that the pumpkins are happy there so maybe tomatoes will be too. It's tough work. It's all clay out there. Thick sticky clay. I tossed some worm castings in to the holes and now I am hoping for the best.

As for the scraggly tomatoes in the pots? I'm not sure what I am going to do. Leave them in the pots and give them a good dose of organic fertilizer? Transplant them to the compost and see what happens? Put them behind the pumpkins with the others?

I'm still dreaming of baskets full of tomatoes from my own yard.