So, remember a while ago when my tomato plants looked like this?They've really grown! Well...they're not exactly huge. But there's been progress. Now they look like this:The one on the left has gotten bigger, but it looks like the bottom part is mostly wilted and dead. The middle one can't decide what it wants to do. I think maybe its pot is too small. It will get flowers, but nothing ever comes of them. I have the most tomatoes on the plant furthest to the right - the tallest one. This week I was delighted to find that a couple of the tomatoes are changing color. One of them is almost entirely red!As I've stated before, when I first started nurturing these plants, I honestly didn't really expect them to stay alive much less produce anything. I had zero confidence in my gardening abilities. Maybe I'll only have two or three tiny grape tomatoes as garnish on a salad, but I'll be mighty proud. You know I'll be taking a picture of that salad for the blog.

The other day when I was at work, I went by the coffee cart to buy a morning scone and they had a dahlia in a vase. Dahlias are such enormous and beautiful flowers!It really made me want to grow some in my own yard. There are several different types, and of course several colors as well. In the Burpee catalog, the big ones are called "dinner plate dahlias." And for good reason - they really are that big! It would be so great to have a bunch of them growing together. It would be an explosion of color in the garden!

In addition to the coffee cart dahlia, I've also been inspired by the flower beds in a few of the gardening blogs I read, like A Gardener in Progress. I've always wanted to plant a few flowers - namely sunflowers, daisies and cosmos - but now I'm thinking that maybe I should try out a few other types. I'm looking through some seed catalogs to get some ideas. They have a lot of variety packs of seeds. Maybe that's the way to go to see what works? I'm also thinking that maybe instead of trying to revive our sad front lawn, maybe I should just tear out most the grass and instead plant flowers and herbs.

So many big gardening ideas...so little time to actually make them happen. But I can dream!