...but, well:
that's a tub
You see, the house that I bought has a back yard but it is mostly concrete. I'm going to dig it up and make it all plants at some point, but my bigger concern right now is fixing things inside the house so, you know, I can live there by the end of the summer. But my tomatoes were outgrowing their pots and I certainly don't have the money to buy or move any big planters right now and this bathtub was just sitting in the back yard already filled with dirt so...
no judgement in bathtub planting, right?
I planted it! Rutgers, Copia, Dr. Walter and Jersey Giant tomatoes, sweet yellow stuffing peppers and one lone eggplant in the bottom left corner. So much space! You can see that the eggplant and some of the tomatoes were getting quite dry in their little pots - because the tub holds so much more dirt they won't dry out nearly as quickly now.
I'd like to say a word about using household items in gardens. You may think that with my love of puns I'd think the ubiquitous flower "bed" planted in an old bed frame would be just hilarious. Bed! Bed!! That's some highbrow humor right there, and exactly the type that I normally laugh at so hard I snort. Somehow, though, in my mind the wonderful pun is overshadowed by the fact that there's A BED IN YOUR GARDEN. Sorry, that's just too tacky. And that's how I feel about this, too.
THERE'S A BATHTUB IN MY GARDEN.
DID THE PLUMBER GET CONFUSED?
WHERE'S THE TOILET? [Actually my neighbors have planted things in a toilet bowl right across the fence so that joke doesn't work. But pretend you didn't know that.]
Okay, okay. But the aesthete (ha) in me is a little embarrassed to admit that when I first walked out the back door and saw the hideous tub my immediate thought was "What a great planter!" followed closely by "Sarah, don't you turn into one of those people who plants things in old shoes and tires and - shudder - beds."
But I knew that my tomatoes, peppers and eggplant needed more space. I knew that the tub would have to stay for the time being since it's very heavy and I'd need lots of help to move it. I knew my money and time were best spent on things inside the house like, uh, real plumbing and a working kitchen. And before I knew it I had planted the entire tub.
So now my little vegetable garden looks like this:
eggplants, tomatoes, peppers, tree of heaven and a rose
And I'm telling myself that it's okay that I planted the tub because I didn't put it there. But then again I didn't remove it. What's that saying about making a choice by not making a choice? Because for now, at least, I've made the choice to be a person with a bathtub in her garden.