New in the Garden

The tomato plant labels have long since been obscured by the tomato plants themselves. So I was surprised by these pale tomatoes at the end of the row. They're Snow White cherry tomatoes. I remember getting the seed as a bonus sample with something I ordered last year. I'm glad I had room to try them this year. They're very juicy, kind of sweet and, face it, the color looks nice in a mix. The orange tomatoes on the left in this picture are Sun Gold, our standby cherry tomato. And the darker red ones on the right are Sweet Millions.

I'm often surprised by plants Bill gave me years ago. He brings me treasures when I'm too busy to think about them and I stick them in the garden wherever I can. Labels get lost. Growth happens. Years later, voila, I'm asking, "Bill, what is this?" This is Scilla chinensis. I have no recollection of planting it. Actually I only vaguely remember ever seeing it before. But it's a nice touch at this time of year.

Kathy Purdy, at Cold Climate Gardening, has been summarizing responses to a series of questions she asked to celebrate the fourth year anniversary of her blog. What do you think has caused the proliferation of garden blogs in the last year? I know that for years I wondered why there were so few gardening blogs. Anyway, I'm glad there are lots now. And thanks to Kathy for keeping up a Garden Blog Directory.