Black Gumbo

Well so much for beans only.

Today a friend delivered to my office parking garage 40 little tomato plants for me. I had forgotten that last year we were discussing our common interest in veggie gardening and he said "Yeah my dad raises and sells tomato plants, I'll set you up in the spring." Well, he did. 40 plants. 20 varieties. Most heirlooms. Wow!

Now I have a dilemma. I planted lots of cowpeas just the other day, intending to plant just a few tomatoes this year. I have one more plot ready to be planted with more veggies this weekend. But 40 plants?! So I decided, in the space of a few minutes, that we will have containers full of tomato plants this year in addition to the three raised beds, effectively expanding the garden more than twofold in terms of plants. The problem is, I have very few containers and don't want to break the bank. "Never fear," says I, "I'll improvise".

Then today, my buddy in labor sitting next to me says "Hey, I have a bunch of containers sitting in my garage, you can have 'em." So there ya go! He's a rose gardener and collects various varieties, and has gathered up a bunch of large containers over the years. Perfect!

So there we have it. Tomatoes by the container. Now to get some container-suitable soil mix and we're off to a good start for '09!