The last couple of summers, I’ve taken the opportunity that remote work has provided me to get into gardening. It took some fits and starts before I eventually realized that for me, container gardening on my porch is the most realistic solution. Do we have enough land for an actual in-ground garden? We sure do. But it’s not easily accessible from my front door, and I am what I euphemistically refer to as “indoorsy”. So after a few years of trying to force myself to fit my garden, I’ve brought the garden onto the porch to make it fit me.

You’ll be surprised to hear that it is going so much better now, I’m sure.

This year, I’ve got cherry tomatoes (which historically have done well), an unidentified heirloom tomato variety my son gave me, a couple of varieties of hot peppers, lunchbox (mini bell) peppers, okra, soybeans, green beans, cucumbers, various herbs, grapes, eggplants, horseradish, ginger, and turmeric. And yes! it does all fit on my porch, creatively.

I’m finding that I get an unexpected amount of joy from tending my precious little plants, even though the “harvest”, such as it is, isn’t really even enough to supplement the diet of a single person, much less a family of five. I’m not sure I’ll ever be a summer person, but this daily practice helps me hate it a little bit less each year.