Slugfest

I have been very patient. Waiting and waiting for the tomatoes to ripen, maybe even show some color? Just a bit? I have two tomato plants in my little 5X3 raised bed garden. Both were gifts from another, more experienced gardener. One is your basic large beefsteak type tomato, and the other is cherry tomatoes. Nice combination.

I underestimated the ... um, heft of the larger tomato plant, and they kept falling down. Most of the summer, actually, even before the tomatoes started coming. So I finally gave up and just spread them around a bit, trying to give each one enough room to grow and be fruitful.

More than 2 dozen large (4-6 inches across, I don't buy them this big at the store!) green tomatoes on one plant. Would've been nice to share. But the slugs had other ideas. I didn't discover them until it was too late. I may have saved 2 or three, but the rest are ... ick. Mush. Slug food.

Okay, so maybe letting the tomato plants just lounge around, filling up the box where the cucumbers were now drying up and away, covering up a few basil plants, shading the peppers that I already knew weren't going to produce any peppers ... go ahead and say it. The perfect environment for slugs. And boy did they have a feast.

Well, not anymore. I cleaned up. I hacked it all away. Not even composting this stuff, in case I missed any live ones. And the surprised little buggers got a nice warm soapy bath (they can't swim, mwahahahaha!)

All that's left is one cherry tomato plant, and it's propped up all over the place. Not much shade to be found in the garden anymore. But I'm watching, and waiting. Patiently.