Dear Summer

Pictured is myself giving my potatoes a drink after planting
them. My dog is not impressed, as you can clearly see.

I'm not exactly the green thumb type, but eating store bought tomatoes is downright depressing. Farmer's markets are cool, but if you want the good tomatoes, I mean the really good stuff, you gotta wait in line. There's this farmer's market in Granville Island where a grower from Kelowna has a stand and people literally fight over his heirloom tomatoes. I like tomatoes as much as the next person, but I'm not going to stay and line and risk a fight. I gotta stay pretty, you know what I mean?

See all those pots behind me in the photo above? All tomatoes, except for the one at the far right which is a flowering plant from the Philippines. It rarely flowers due to the fact our climate here sucks. But that's another story. We're talking about tomatoes. 

Each one of these will turn into a tomato.

I am reserving this plant for smoothie duty. 

This plant will bear Roma tomatoes, which are perfect for sauce.

I plant all my tomatoes in pots. The reason I do this is that tomatoes hate rain. It rains a lot here in Vancouver and I don't want to ruin all my hard work. I move all my plants undercover when it's necessary. This is important as well, when you water them, water the dirt and not the plant. Keep water off the plant and you'll have good tomatoes.

I found these during a recent cleaning of my pantry. They
were a little overgrown, so there's nothing you can do now
except stick them in a pot and wait. 

Potatoes are easy to grow. They are very hardy plants and are not fussy at all. All you got to do is stick them in the ground. If you want small potatoes, plant them in a pot. If you want big potatoes, plant them in the ground. They will take advantage of all the space you give them.  

The start of a delicious relationship.

Each one of these little growths will turn into a separate plant.
So before you plant these little babies, cut them
accordingly.

In a couple weeks, the potatoes will sprout. Water them once in the morning and once in the evening. They're not like tomatoes, so they like rain. In early October, the plant will die. When they do, that's your cue to dig them up. That's it.

Soil.

Cut accordingly.

Good night. See you in October.