Several weeks ago, I decided to call the whole thing off, this tomato planting bit. Sure, there's nothing like tomatoes fresh from the garden, but there's also nothing like tending to a garden all summer either. Plus, with all the rain and my running project, I haven't really had time to prep the soil, buy the plants, dig the holes, stake the stems....excuses, excuses.So, I was resolved that there would be no home grown tomatoes for me this season. But then I went off and bought decoy tomatoes at the grocery store. You know, the tomatoes that look like they are vine ripened because they are still on the vine, and because they are still on the vine, they smell like tomatoes fresh from the vine? Of course, when I brought these decoy tomatoes home and cut into them, I discovered their true nature: grocery store tomatoes. I suspect they were refrigerated at some point on their journey from hard green lumps on a vine in a vat in the back of a van to hard red clumps on a vine on my kitchen counter awaiting slicing. Nothing disappoints like a bad tomato.
On the bright side, this bad tomato was a reality check for me and my garden. I realized the work and water are worth the reward. Plus, if I didn't plant tomatoes, I would have an utterly empty garden bed nagging at me every time I glanced out my kitchen window, and I don't respond well to nagging. Yesterday, I finally got the tomatoes in...staked and all! Summer has officially begun.
