Rose Bochansky isn't a rose gardener - yet. But she's grown just about the biggest tomato I've ever seen - a luminous gold one that would take at least three hands to hold.
I met Rose over at Harriton House, where she works as the assistant to Curator Bruce Gill. I'm embarrassed to admit I'd never heard of Harriton before now, but it's definitely going on my list of must-see places. It's a house, garden and 15-acre park in Bryn Mawr, of all places, that dates to 1704 and was once home to Charles Thomson, the first and only secretary to the Continental and Confederation Congresses.
The original owner, Rowland Ellis, received the nearly 700-acre property from William Penn and called it "Bryn Mawr," which means "high hill" in Welsh. Today it has a community garden on the site and an apiary, which is what drew me there. I hope to write a story on this lovely place in the weeks to come, but meanwhile, take a look at http://www.harritonhouse.org.
Here's Rose. Believe it or not, this is her first vegetable garden ever. It's huge!
I think she's showing me her borage in this photo. Borage has a yucky name but tastes like cucumber and is irresistible to hummingbirds. Rose has even made borage tea from the leaves. "It has a very clean taste," she reports.
Apparently that's also what birds and insects think of borage. Rose says they're all over it.
That's not something you hear much about - borage - but, like Harriton House, it's well worth trying. It has pretty purple flowers and dark green leaves, and it's a self-sowing annual considered a good companion plant for tomatoes. It's advisable to plant it close together - we urban gardeners like that advice! and some say it improves the flavor of tomatoes growing nearby.
I imagine Rose's golden globe is probably the tastiest tomato around, but given that she's growing borage all over her tomato patch, I'll go out on a (short) limb and speculate that that title's a lock.
