Winter Kitchen Garden

While all of the cottage/home-decor magazines told me months ago to say goodbye to my garden and prepare my perennials for that which my annuals could not withstand, I somehow convinced myself to give the tomato a go in the kitchen.

Though logic informs me a cherry tomato plant does not produce in the winter, I maintain my belief that an enthusiastic mixture of miracle-gro and crazy can produce horticulture wonderment. After all, I still can't keep up with the production of two basil plants born from clippings that sprouted roots in a glass of water in the summer of '07 and have since withstood a record Chicago winter, moving uptown, and about a thousand bouts of re-potting.

But here is my boastful Winter garden. At right is the wee tomato in March, at left he rings in at pushing 8 feet.