Garden Inspiration

My MIL has a lot of free time. She was a stay-at-home mom and now that her boys are all grown up and out of the house, she dedicates her time to keeping her home immaculately clean, keeping up to date on pretty much everything, and gardening.

My husband and I went down to San Diego this weekend to keep her company while her husband was out of town. I was so impressed by her garden. She has everything.
2 different kinds of zucchini, tomatoes, bell peppers, jalapenos, strawberries, limes...

Tomatoes, bell peppers, zucchini flower, actual zucchini, and basil

So I got a little jealous. I have a lime tree, blueberry bush, blackberry vines, beets, carrots...and none of them are look as awesome as the plants at my mother-in-law's. I have ONE beet, which I am afraid to pull because I don't think its ready. I have tons of carrots, but they are not big enough get. You can pull them, but you just get tiny 1" long skinny baby carrots. No blueberries. No blackberries, but the vines are growing all over the place. No limes, but at least the tree doesn't look like its dying anymore. I am managing to keep the basil alive, which I hear is pretty difficult, and rosemary is easy peasy, so hooray for me! I can make herbs thrive!

So, since my plants are starting to do pretty well, finally, I decided to take a little inspiration from my MIL and get some new additions for our patio garden.

I forget the name of the plant on the far left, but it sometimes has cool pink flowers on it. In the back is our lime tree, which is finally starting to do well, and up front are the new guys...   

Black beauty zucchini. I was also a little tempted to get a kind of yellow squash, but decided against it. 

And yellow pear heirloom tomatoes. :)

I LOVE zucchini. It's easily one of my favorite veggies, but tomatoes I am not usually a fan of. I do, however, like yellow tomatoes. I think I've just had good experiences with them. My perception has not been tainted by old, soft, or overly juicy yellow tomatoes. They've always been really fleshy, firm and light in flavor. So I've got my fingers crossed that when these start to bear fruit, I will enjoy eating them. :)

So hopefully my garden continues to do well and flourish under my care. The method for my madness is generally just madness, so I should be able to keep it going ;)