The Little Tomato Plant That Could

I have to pay tribute to our tomato plant that finally gave up for the winter just a couple weeks ago. These were the last few tomatoes we managed to harvest from it.

Back in the spring/early summer we bought some tomato plants and a big half-barrel to plant them outside our apartment. (When we were drilling drainage holes in the bottom, we noticed a distinct smell. In a previous life our half-barrel and been a full-barrel filled with Jack Daniels. Maybe that's why the plants did so well?) The tomato plants got so big that M rigged up an elaborate trellis-like setup involving a large piece of wood, some string, and a neighboring tree. It was so trashy looking, it was great. I bet our neighbors were not sad to see us go.

We got a fair number of tomatoes out of it (except for the ones the neighbor boys pulled off when they were green). Then we bought our house and we had to move in July. There were still lots of tomatoes that weren't ready yet, but oh well. There was no way to move this Frankenstein's monster in one piece. But M went ahead and cut the tops off of a few of the best branches and when we got to the house, we put new soil in the barrel, crossed our fingers, and stuck the cut pieces into the dirt. One of them actually grew!!! It kept producing pitiful little tomatoes up until late December. I still can't believe that it worked. That's the kind of thing that only happens to my plant goddess sister.