While reading accounts of bountiful harvests by garden bloggers around the world, I’ve waited patiently, hoping my day would come.

Well, despite the setbacks I’ve faced this year in the cultivation of my small-space balcony garden, I can at last proclaim: I have tomatoes!

Not as many as I anticipated when I began this year’s gardening adventure, but the fact that I was overambitious has perhaps paid off, since half of too much turns out to be quite enough. Wild cherry, rosalita and isis candy heirlooms endured an extended time inside, followed by days of extreme heat and an overall cool summer to finally come into their own.

Of course I still lament the fallen: my two favorite heirlooms — black plum and sun-sugar hybrid — got fried during that heat wave and never recovered.

And while the Dr. Carolyn once looked to be in good shape, about a month ago the leaves began turning brown and now it’s down to a single stem with one cluster of fruit… I think I’ll put it out of its misery tomorrow and give my wild cherry more room to be.

Believe me, it could use the space. Not only is the wild cherry (second photo) out of control huge, it is amazingly prolific. It’s covered with these bright red, half-inch fruit that are the perfect bite-sized package for dropping into pasta and stir-fry dishes. (I’ll try to post a recipe for a quick dish incorporating them later this week.)

The isis candy (large photo) and the rosalita (third photo) aren’t yet ready to eat, but there are lots of developed, healthy fruit flirting with the sun and likely to be ready to sample in days.

And the fresh flavor of the tomatoes harvested so far has made them well worth the wait.