It's Like We Water-Boarded It

We got a Topsy Turvy* tomato plant hanger thingy last year. It wasn't a really successful horticultural experiment then. So we tried again this year with a cherry tomato plant.

I've never seen a cherry tomato plant grow like this. Granted, we did hang it upside down.

It grew straight down for a day or two then decided to turn sharply upward. At this point it began growing at a rate of about three inches a day. I'm not even kidding. It was amazing. Thinking about the rate of cell division going on blew my mind. Just growing up and up and up... but not producing anything even remotely like a tomato flower.

It seemed to be saying, "To heck with you, Gravity. I'm going to grow as big, tall, and gangly as I possibly can under mostly my own support [note some twine we had to add to keep it from falling over and breaking off]. Then and only then will I make tiny tomatoes. Just in time for it to turn cold and my tiny green tomatoes will never ripen. I'll get those jerks back for hanging me upside-down!"

Do you think it was just really stressed by being upside-down? Maybe it freaked out and grew as big as possible trying to get far away from its oppressors reaching out for help in all directions. I have a feeling it just wasn't getting enough sun.

To give you some scale, I can't reach the top tiny red tomato. Erik has to reach and stretch to water it at the top and he is kind of tall. The plant itself, if the bottom of it were on the ground, would be about four and a half feet tall.

I have eaten approximately three tomatoes off this plant all summer. Right now there are a lot of beautiful green cherry tomatoes on it. We had a 90 degree day over the weekend. But the following day was only about 65 degrees so I think our growing season has come to an end. It's getting quite cold at night now.

So a big boo and hiss to the Tomato Fairy this year. Even our right-side up tomato plants didn't do very much. However I shall not complain too loudly as we had more than a bountiful raspberry crop this year to make up for any tomato inadequacies.

* Our tomato plant looks nothing like the plants on their website. I might submit our weird monstrosity to their gallery and ask what we did wrong.

It’s All Green, Baby

Spring is springing here in lovely Rochester and where I am in Irondequoit. The trees have filled back up with leaves. Hostas are sprouting. Lilacs are blooming!

Plants are making their way up in my flowerbed in the backyard. This is our first spring in our first house so I have no idea what is “plant” and what is “weed” just yet. I’m letting it grow wild until I figure it out. Never really had anywhere to do any weeding or planting so I’m actually looking forward to getting dirty out there. Mr. M says his duty is the grass and I should tend to the other plants outside. Fair deal.

Mr. M bought me the tomato plants I asked for. And he got me surprise strawberry plants. I must find a way to keep the voracious and abundant squirrels here away from them so I get to eat the fruits of my labor.

The raspberries I told you about last year are also coming up. There are more plants this year on our side of the fence! Yay!! Our neighbor who owns the plants has Crohn’s so he cannot eat them anyway due to the little seeds. The berries won’t be out until July I think.

I adore this time of year here. Life is retuning to abundance instead of cold scarcity. My soul thrives on the green lushness around me. We got so lucky to have tall trees in our neighborhood so they can surround me. I love trees. They’re magical! I’m known to literally hug trees.

Now I need to convince Mr. M that I need a laptop so I can work on the patio and enjoy my lovely weather and deciduous companions!