This is a story. A story of adventure, woe and love. This is a story about tomatoes.
Okay, alright. It's a short...very short, brief, few sentences about my tomato plants. It started about 2 or 3 weeks ago. I had visited a friend. She quickly quipped upon my arrival, "You NEED tomato plants!"
(No, she really didn't say it quite like that, but that is how my brain translated it.)
I made excuses. Would you like to hear them? It went something like this.
Why are you getting rid of them? I don't have pots. I don't have soil. I don't have fertilizer or Miracle-Gro. I don't have stakes. Where can I put them? I've never grown tomatoes. I heard they are hard to grow....
I HAVE A BLACK THUMB.
Surely if you give me these dearies you are sending them to vegetable death row. Do you not love them?
She replied, "They are easy to grow. Here's some pots and do you want to put these in the back of your car?"
Tough love.
They sat on my front porch for a while...not watered, not planted. I put them in pots...and well the evidence of my black thumb is apparent.
My husband had given up on the wilted beauties.
The champion of all things earth bound (my father-in-law) came to their rescue. I bought the potting soil, but he supplied me with the knowledge (and a few supplies) to bring these darlings back from the dead. (zombie tomato anyone?)
Here is the recipe for Eternal Vegetable Life:
Here is the recipe for Eternal Vegetable Life:
Fill a pot with potting soil.
Dig the hole where your tomato will go.
1/2 cup of fertilizer in the hole. Mix it in the with the soil.
Fill the hole with Miracle Gro. Quite a lot if your plant is on the brink of death.
Put plant in the hole. Fill hole with dirt. Find a stick, or stake, or whatever and tether your tomato plant to it!
If the leaves are wilting and dry, you aren't watering it enough.
If the leaves are turning yellow, you are watering it too much.
You can spray pesticide until blossoms form. Otherwise leave it alone.
Make sure it gets a TON of sunshine.
I have done these things and already the plants have improved. Will they bear fruit? Will they survive?
Stay tuned!
