tomatoes

Several years ago my father brought me some volunteer cherry tomato plants that he dug up from his garden in Indianapolis which we planted at my old house in Shawnee. I saved seeds from the fruit and planted them here at Catalpa Cottage. They came up very densely. Rather than just thin the plants, I transplanted them into a long row, which is still very dense. Last week I put stakes up in the transplant row, and it occurred to me that it has been a true exercise in resourcefulness (or at least the Winslovian value of refusing to throw anything away). Dad dug up volunteer plants in Indiana, drove them to Oklahoma; I saved the seeds and then refused to throw the plants out when I thinned. I used sticks that had fallen down from the pecan tree as stakes and tied them up with old rags that had once been socks. (I’ve used them as rags for several years!)