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| then there was one.... |
This tomato plant was glorious! Oh how I babied it, watered and fertilized it.... I ever talked to it and told stories of things to come. How delicious they would be in my Salsa, stewed tomatoes, spaghetti sauce, pizza sauce..... I think I made them blush because soon they were turning a yummy red and growing bigger and more bountiful! "YES!" I thought to myself. This is the year that my tomatoes will make it there was at least 20 on the plant and more sunny yellow flowers blossoming! I was sooooo excited! Until this morning.
I woke up to the sun shining and the birdies singing, all was right in the world , my heart was happy so I thought I would go outside and water my flowers and my prized tomato plant. I turned on the hose and started watering all my babies. First the perennial beds where my roses, delphiniums, hydrangeas, hostas and cone flowers were growing. I moved on to the baskets and planters and then around to my other gardens slowly making my way over to my tomatoes. Now since my huge vegetable garden had been replaced years ago with a new septic field ( I know....not happy ) I've since planted my veggies in containers . When I walked closer to container holding my tomatoes I realized the wind must have blew it over because there it was laying on it's side on the ground among my peony plants. Well, I panicked and ran over to turn the container over and realized.... this cannot be my tomato plant. My tomato plant had tonnes of beautiful fruit on it and this one was empty. How can that be?? After a few minutes of stunned silence and rationalizing that no one would sneak into my yard and replace my gorgeous plant with their hideous one, I figured that yes.... it was a stink'n deer. All my hard work and dreams of yummy tomato goodness was sitting in the bottom of some wild animals stomach . I could have cried! "Stupid deer!!!", I yelled out loud scaring my poor dog and neighbours. I took a deep breath and picked up the water hose ready to go back in the house when something caught my eye. I pushed away some of the dark green foliage of my shrubs and there underneath a healthy green leaf lay the most beautiful red tomato I've ever seen. I picked it up and carried it into the house ( after it's photo shoot ) and thought to myself all is not lost.
So I won't be able to have jars of Salsa or fresh stewed tomatoes in my sauces. I won't be able to brag about how bountiful my tomatoes were this year. But most of all I won't say I'll never plant another tomato because we all know I'll get sucked in again . When the snow is giving way to that sweet green grass and the buds are bursting on the tips of their branches, I'll be sitting in the house looking at the picture of my one little tomato and all that could have been.
