It was a tough growing season for tomatoes. At the start, I could not have imagined the impact of having ground hogs (a.k.a. wood chucks) decimating the plants in my and the neighbors gardens.
Basically, the first several crops of tomatoes in July and August never made to harvest because the ground hogs ate them all. As noted form previous blogs, I plant with expectation of losing some but no tomatoes all my tomatoes. Eventually, the ground hogs became such a pest my neighbor had them trapped. It was all unfortunate. But that wasn’t the last of the unfortunate effect.
My old neighbor had to complain about them every morning.
Now my neighbor is a dear elderly man and a wonderful neighbor. He lost his wife several years ago and spends lots of time in his elaborate garden. But every morning when came out of the house in the summery morning quiet and beauty he had to complain about the “sonsofbitches” and “bastards” who were eating his tomatoes.
“Don’t they know this is my hobby and I just spent good money on these plants,” he would ask…EVERY MORNING!!!
And the answer is , No they don’t!
So much for starting each summer day in positive way.
But, it is all okay now. I have a big, bag of harvested green tomatoes. And a whole winter to decide what to do for next year!
copyright Christopher Donahue 2024