Bumper Crop

Every year, I put tomato plants in the ground and every year I think this: Not gonna happen. I fret about how scrawny the plants are. I fret about what an apathetic gardener I am. I don’t water enough, I water too much, I don’t weed enough, I forget about the plants for days at a time, and then, I go madly pinching them back for a day, only to forget about them again for another week.

Every year I grow tomatoes and every year I am overwhelmed by the results. Today’s pick yielded five and a half pounds. We know, we weighed. The last two pickings? Two pounds each.

I am a faithless person, I know. Call it a character flaw. But the tomatoes don’t care if I believe in them or not. They just grow.