Balcony Garden: Harvest Monday #54

It has been exciting times out on the balcony garden with the first tomato ripening a few weeks ago and ready to eat. I cannot tell you how excited I am that this tomato has come full-term.

Of course I spoke too soon...

...as I was leaning in to pick my beloved tomato I noticed that it had a big spot of blossom-end rot...on it's bottom! Noooooooooooooooo! This is usually the result of inconsistent watering. Even though I was extra careful this year about watering regularly I think all of the rain we've had followed by super hot days was my undoing.

There was no way however that Mother Nature was stealing my first tomato of the season away from me. I chopped off the bottom and the rest of the tomato was totally fine - so The Boy and I ate it.

 

On a non-tomato related noted I found this poor little guy floundering in one of my buckets of water. I didn't notice him at first and he got a squirt with the hose and was looking rather worse for wear for about 15 minutes. He hang out on my hand for a while and dried off.  

When he was feeling better, and could stand up straight, I popped him onto whatever-this-plant-is. He hung around for ages...so I named him Eric! Praying Mantis are one of my MOST favourite bugs...I spend AGES checking them out whenever we go to the zoo. My favourite are the kind that look like leaves (which is not Eric). LOVE them!

Happy gardening, Miss Piggy xoxo