The Black Thumb of Death

Thank God for supermarkets.  I mean it.  If my family and I were pioneers, we'd surely starve.  I'm not lying here.

A while back I blogged how I had planted ten strawberry plants.  With the help of the neighborhood feral cats and my own black thumb, they never took.  But four pumpkins plants popped up surprising me, giving me hope. (The seeds were from pumpkin innards I threw in the compost pile the year before.)

Then  the middle of summer came and so did powdery mildew.  The poor plants didn't stand a chance.  It was a pitiful sight. At the end, I solemnly stood by the row of withered vines and blew taps.

Before the demise of the pumpkins, I had bought a tomato plant, figuring we're only a family of three, how many tomatoes do we really need.  I planted it in a container so I could move it around to the sunniest spots in my yard and to be able to get it out of the way when my husband mows the lawn.

Well, that one plant produced one tomato throughout the whole growing season. Yep, one tomato. Disappointed?  Ooooh yeah.  When it became ripe, I picked it, and proudly announced, at supper, that the tomato in the salad was our own home grown. After some cheers and smiles from my family, mainly to make me feel good, we partook in enjoying the fruit of my labor.

Then the months turned to October and I thought it would start to die back.  But what should I see one morning?  The dang plant had a small tomato hanging off one of its branches and a week later another appeared.  What the hell?   Did it realize its biological clock was about to tick its last tock and decided to push out two more before winter?

 The nights are now about 35 - 40 degrees and most days are in the middle fifties.  Not exactly the best growing temperature.  But I'm determined to see these orbs grow to their potential.  The plant now resides in the shower of my smaller bathroom at night and if it's sunny and the temp. is in the higher fifties, I carry it outside.  Hey, if the plant is willing to try, so am  I.

I will be triumphant and the tomatoes shall be mine!

Has anyone else ever had a bad vegetable garden?  Tell me please, it will make me feel a bit better. : )