Better Luck Next Year

Gardening is cheaper than therapy and you get tomatoes. ~Author Unknown

What a difference a year makes!

Last year, for the first time, I decided to try growing a tomato plant.

It succeeded. In spades.

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I got plates full of tomatoes, and they were delicious.

Just enough for our household.

Just enough to encourage me to try again.

So fast forward a year.

I bought the same type of tomato (Roma, also known as an Italian tomato).

I fertilized it the same way with Epsom Salt. Watered it on schedule. Even placed it in the same sunny location as before.

So you’d expect similar results, right?

Wrong. Take a look:

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Sad, isn’t it? I blame the weather — too hot and too rainy at the wrong times.

All out of my control.

On the plus side, I avoided hornworms and blossom end rot, two threats to Romas, but where did the leaves go? And why is the fruit congregated at the top of the plant?

Yes, I’ve harvested tomatoes, and they’ve been pretty good.

Small and few in number though.

Certainly nothing to share with the neighbors.

Oh, well.

A garden is always a series of losses set against a few triumphs, like life itself. ~May Sarton, pen name of Eleanor Marie Sarton, American poet, novelist, and memoirist