This was one of my better ideas: it has actually worked very well. (Not all my gardening ideas work well. I like to be experimental in gardening so naturally I have some failures. I chalk them up to 'learning' and try something else.) Our small front porch is raised about two feet off the ground. It's only a small porch, just an entrance, a place to stand out of the rain if you're knocking on the door.

Last year, I bought two dark blue-green flower boxes in a dollar store, for $5 each. These are rectangular, long and narrow, about the shape of a window box. They are each 2 feet long, 10" wide, and 10" high. They look good on the porch as they go well with our white house with blue-green trim (the trim is just a shade lighter than the flower boxes).

I planted petunias in the flower boxes last spring. Unfortunately, it rained all spring last year and most of the summer too. You probably know how bedraggled petunias look when they are beaten up by rain. The poor petunias never looked good at all, and they cost me $18 too - I'd bought little plants at a local greenhouse. What a disappointment they were.

I wanted something different on the front porch this year. In April, I started seeds (indoors, under lights) for Red Robin and Yellow Canary - two terrific little tomato plants, true miniatures. (Both varieties only get about one foot tall, and have masses of little tomatoes with great flavor.) After all danger of frost, I transplanted three little tomato plants into each flower box. I put them towards the back of the boxes (i.e., towards the house). Then I planted seeds of Empress of India nasturtiums along the length of the flower boxes, putting them towards the front (i.e., towards the road).

The nasturtiums grew rapidly and when they became long enough to start shading the tomatoes, I started "encouraging" them to droop over the front edge of the porch, towards the road. I just pushed them down with my hands each time I went in or out of the house. They're drooping down over the porch's edge now, just as I wanted them to, and they have many dark orange and gold blossoms.

Both the leaves and flowers of nasturtiums are edible and taste (mildly) "peppery" - rather like mustard greens. The flowers are a lovely garnish for a tossed salad or a plate of deviled eggs - or any kind of salad plate, really. If using the flowers whole, you may want to pull out the pistil and stamens first: they are edible, but their texture isn't pleasant. Or you can just pull the petals off the flowers, and scatter petals on your salad. The leaves are very pretty "holders" for a scoop of egg, tuna, or chicken salad on a cold plate. Some of them even turn up at the edges, making a shallow cup. A few leaves, cut in strips, would enhance a tossed salad too.

So now I have two pretty flower boxes of blooming nasturtiums - as seen from the road. Seen from the porch, the flower boxes each have three thriving little tomato plants with lots of little tomatoes. (We've been picking and eating the ripe ones, so the picture only shows green tomatoes.)