Them that has...

Back in April, I helped Bright Eyes and Sunshine plant some tomato plants.  Honestly, I thought those plants didn’t stand a chance in the whole of God’s green Earth.  But, dang it, those eight plants are loaded with red and green tomatoes.

Such promises!

So simple, a child could do it!

I, on the other hand, bought a “Topsy-Turvy” tomato planter, and prided myself on the choice of an ‘Heirloom’ tomato plant, expecting a massive overload of tomatoes every day.

Ha! Ha! Ha!  My tomatoes!

So very nummy!

Ha, I say.  Ha.  I have had maybe ten tiny cherry tomatoes, but the rest of the plant is empty.  It did not help that I discover one of those tomato caterpillar worms chomping away at it. 

It did not help that the sun wasn’t adequate, since we could hang the thing in only one spot, which gets sun from 2 to 8 p.m.  It also has not helped that I got fed up with the care it needed.

Art mimics life.

With my granddaughters’ plants, the tomatoes sit happily in sun all day, get lots of water (the girls love to use the hose, any excuse will do), and had less expectations.

The girls love to take me out to see their plants, loaded nearly to maximum with lovely big tomatoes (Marion and Big Boy brands).  “Here, Grandma.  You can have some.  We have plenty,” they say to me.  I tried to show them how wonderful it is to wash the tomato off at the hose, and then eat the tomato warm from the garden, just like an apple.

All I got from them was, “Oh, we really don’t like tomatoes unless Mommy cuts them up in a salad.  Take all you want.”

Why don't I get any tomatoes?!

This weekend I will go and buy a flat of tomatoes, a cheap planter like I gave them, and set those things out.  Dang it.  I may even get some tomato food and a natural worm repellant.  I will get some tomatoes eventually.

So it is true, that old saying:  Them that has don’t care.  Them that don’t, care.  I have no idea where that gem came from, but it wasn’t from me.