Tomato Problem

I have always loved tomatos!  I think if you have read much of my blog you will read about all (or a lot) of my escapades with them!  I generally have a tomato "round-up" outlining what the favorites for the year were and any new varieties  that we tried and loved.  We have a great list of favorites - "sun gold", Chocolate Cherry", "Bush Early Girl" among a few!  "Cherry Punch" has been a big favorite for that past few years,(Aunt Cyn has always started those for us) but we werent able to get seeds this year for it!  Thats is a Tomato Problem - just one of them!

Supposedly when you have more than one tomato come up in one space, you are supposed to "cull" the weaker one and so it makes the other one strong.  I have never been able to "cull" and kill any of them!  If they come up and try to live - I am all about giving them a chance!  Pot them up and treat them well!

They usually do pretty well small or not!

A few years ago (about two summers ago) our internet got upgraded.  We had MTA (the local telephone cooperative) working at the end of the lane where the telephone/internet pedestal is.  Our lot is where the phone and internet, and actually the electric, comes into the whole subdivision; so if it needs work, the guys come and work at the end of the driveway.

(Tomatoes in the greenhouse - part of them)

How does that relate to a Tomato problem you ask?  Ill tell you!

(More tomatoes - even some of the small ones that would have been "culled" by other growers maybe) 

I digress - as usual when tomatoes are involved!  Anyhoo..... I am the only one in the neighborhood with a real "greenhouse", however........some of my neighbors are "growers".  One across the street grew marijuana on occaision - not in a greenhouse - in his house house!  Windows all boarded up, and darkening shades on others so the light couldnt be seen from outside the house.

(And there are two cucumbers mixed in with the tomatoes you see here- Cukes are doing ok!)

Whats the problem you say?  Marijuana is legal in your state, right?  This was before it was legal, and if you have a "grow" it has to be registered even today for more than a little bit for "personal use". 

So.....when the nieghbor (they don't live there any more), would harvest his "grow", the smell of the Mary Jane would waft over to our yard, and really throughout the neighborhood!  The smell alone indicated that it was more than a "personal use" grow!

(And still more tomatoes)!

So.... the MTA guys are out there working - they started at about 8:00 in the morning- and at about 10:00 a.m, an Alaska State Trooper shows up in the driveway.  Fortunately, it is a Trooper I know, and he is laughing a little as he says "Lis- I gotta check the inside of the greenhouse, if you don't mind?"  Because he knows that is not what I grow in there, but even he could smell the neighborhood smell that day (I'm pretty sure the MTA guys called them and thought it was my greenhouse)!

So, of course I take him right in and show him all the varieties of tomato I am growing as well as the Cucumbers and Peppers too!  Mixed in with the tomatoes, of course!

He laughed and said "You don't have a Dope problem, but you might have a Tomato Problem!"

Then he cruised over to the neighbors house!

(Cherry Punch - so tasty)

A Tomato Problem - it's not a bad problem to have!  Stay tuned for the round up at the end of the season.

I hope you have a great summer and a "tomato problem" is your only one!  Blessed be!