OK, for $3.99 I can buy a multi-colored pint of cherry tomatoes. I chose to grow Sweet 100’s, indoors.
It was a tiny plant and I placed it in a 1/2 gallon cement planter with 1/2 stick to tie it to, from the hardware store. It soon reached over the top so I bought a full stick for $2. Two weeks later it was still spindly but taller than me. We self-pollenated and ended up with one to start.
I went back to the hardware store and the owner went out and got me a tomato cage. Right now it looks as if we may have 12 tomatoes sometime this season. A couple of weeks ago I had to re-plant into a 2-gallon container. I had the container and more soil. Free? Labor, plus it was petulant for a week so required extra care.
Now I await several small tomatoes in a few weeks, for over $10 plus labor, plus the plant is in our living room because 15 years ago we had an outdoor tomato plant that had serious bugs and tomato worms. For that one we even bought 1,500 ladybugs and set them free and they stayed two minutes on the plant then went to tastier lodgings.
In the end I could buy better tomatoes for 1/3 the price at the grocery store. If I did so, granted I could not say I grew them myself.
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It has been very loud and stormy for much of the night. Severe thunder and rain now. The wind changes all the time so I don’t know if it is coming back on us, only that our old dog will not come out from under the bed or go out for a walk. Storm moved off again, but will come back. Who knows where the winds may blow? Stay dry, Dee
Cooking with Dee 