Back in Nova Scotia, I have a nice garden that I built up over many years. Many of the plants were lovingly transferred from my mom’s gardens and added to with plants from friends or just things I wanted to grow. I had two perennial flower gardens, one out front of the house for everyone to enjoy and one in the back yard for my enjoyment as well as a vegetable garden hidden beside the house with a few perennial plants such as Rhubarb and Horseradish that came up every year which were supplemented with tomatoes, carrots and other edibles grown from seed or seedlings. These gardens were really my doings; Regis never really had much interest in them other than enjoying the blooms or making delicious rhubarb pie. I did try to develop an interest in the hobby for her by designating one small garden as “hers”, but she usually deferred to our “Garden Consultant” for the design and planting of her area. 
Regis's little balcony garden
Moving to Toronto for our downsizing adventure, gardening was one of the hobbies I had give up, as living on the ninth floor in a downtown condo complex, did not give me much area to grow things. A pot of basil was the extent of my gardening here in Toronto.
Then one day I was surprised when while walking through a Dollerama store, Regis found a little inexpensive kit to grow cherry tomatoes, and she expressed an interest in planting the seeds to grow tomatoes. Her transition into the family “gardener” was not smooth however.
The little tomato kit sat on the window ledge beside the balcony for a while, and one day when a friend was visiting here and offered to help, Regis decided to plant the seeds. Opening the “Kit” however revealed that the “inexpensive” kit only included a small plastic pot and the seeds, but not even any actual soil. Obviously a good sales tactic, since it required a second trip to get some garden soil to put the seeds in.
Once planted the seeds did germinate and tiny tomato plants pushed up out of the soil. But, as she started admiring her successful gardening experiment, she discovered that the retired nun living in the condo under us was also growing tomatoes only hers were 10 times the size of Regis’ little plants. I reassured her that the downstairs tomatoes were probably grown from seedlings so had a head start, or there might have been some divine intervention involved. 
OMG they actually grew!
The little tomatoes did seem to enjoy the sunshine and warmth out on our balcony and they did their best to catch up to the neighbours plants. As they started to outgrow their little pot, I informed Regis that they needed to be repotted to give them room to grow into serious tomato plants. She was not expecting this, and said she was just expecting them to grow in the supplied container, so when I explained that each little plant wanted their own pot if they were going to actually produce tomatoes. Regis was not expecting to have to go back to the store for six big pots and two big bags of soil. But since she was having up upsize the garden, she decided to also plant some lettuce, and we have been enjoying fresh lettuce for our burgers and fresh salads from her garden.
The tomato plants were however quite happy with the new homes and they rapidly grew taller, and the one little pot was now six large pots filling one entire side of the balcony. As they grew Regis had to water them more and more and another trip to the store was required to get a proper watering can, and she discovered that when we left the condo for more than a few days, she had to convince Ryan and Ben to please walk over and water her garden while we were away. 
Look . . . Tomatoes
The plants grew and grew and flowers developed, but as they grew taller, they started to fall over so I explained that they needed to be supported with stakes or tomato cages.
“I had no idea that one cute little tomato kit could be so much work.” Regis exclaimed with some frustration . . . .
The tomatoes got “staked” and supported and the flowers developed into little green tomatoes.
Let me see there are about 10 little cherry tomatoes out there trying their best to turn red . . . . a little inexpensive Dollerama kit, . . . . .a little bag of potting soil . . . . six large garden pots . . . . . two big bags of gardening soil . . . . . a watering can . . . . . . tomato supports . . . . . . hours of work . . . . she had discovered that it is probably best not to do the math on balcony gardening economy.
I am not sure if Regis has actually developed into a gardener, but she is quite proud that those little seeds have actually grown into real tomato plants and the lettuce continues to provide fresh greens for our kitchen. Now hopefully those tomatoes turn red when we are actually in Toronto to be able to enjoy the fruits of her gardening skills.
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