One Saturday morning, a couple of months ago, I spied some organic tomato plants for sale at a booth in the public market. I've always wanted to have my own fresh tomatoes, but didn't know if I'd have any success. The dirt around our house is not great (2 out of 3 rose bushes died, but the tulips, weeds and oregano seem to do just fine) and I have no experience. I took a chance and bought 2 plants.

Instead of putting them in the hard, lifeless soil near the house, I got 2 kitty litter buckets from a friend and bought some organic potting soil. I put Tomato Plant #1 and Tomato Plant #2 both in one bucket. This was probably not the best decision, but it's a done deal now.

Once the plants were grounded and settled into the bucket, I took it outside to the back yard, to a spot where it was bound to get morning sunlight. They grew like wildfire! Since I didn't have any kind of a cage for the unruly plant, I decided to "stake" it with twine to Larry's fence. In the process of doing this, I broke off a branch. The branch soaked in water for a week or 2, sprouted roots, and became Tomato Plant #3 in the other kitty litter bucket.


This is Tomato Plant #3, still hanging out on the porch. It has some green fruit on it, but not as much fruit as the other plants outside.


These are the first good tomatoes to come off the plants. I've had a problem with brown spots, which I learned are probably due to irregular watering habits. I fixed this problem (and have tomatoes without the brown spots now) by watering about 10-12 oz. each day, rather than a half gallon every 4-5 days. Some sources also indicate the spots could be caused by lack of calcium, but I doubt this is my problem. I am was definitely an irregular waterer.

And last night I ate the first of my tomatoes. Yum, yum!

By the way, all of the brown-spotted tomatoes I have dropped into the buckets. I am hoping that, when buried and dormant through the winter, the seeds within will sprout and I'll have new plants next summer. I will probably do some reading on this to make sure I'm not missing something. It's worth a try!