OVER BUDGET

In retaliation to the ever rising cost of groceries, and in a bid to become at least a little more self reliant, we decided to try our hand at growing our own veggies. Since our little concrete patio doesn't really lend itself to gardening, we started small. We began with one pot and one tomato plant and all of the sunshine a plant could ever wish for.

The start up cost wasn't tiny; between the pot, the soil, the tomato feed, and the plant itself, it dawned on us that these could turn out to be the most expensive tomatoes we'd ever spent money on. But we were dreaming big, so our primary goal of saving money wasn't out of the window. We were imagining the many harvests we'd have, year after year of beautiful home grown tomatoes. We were imagining we'd grow so many that we wouldn't know what to do with them. We'd deliver them by the wheelbarrow load to soup kitchens because we couldn't get through them quickly enough. When we thought about it that way the start up cost was really an investment, rather than a real expenditure; we'd be saving money on groceries in no time!

Of course, with plans like that our trip to the garden centre was preceded by copious tomato reading. And I didn't rely on what Alan Titchmarsh alone had to say. I went to the library. I read about growing tomatoes in the desert, and water recommendations, and canes, and hours of sunlight for optimal growth. I really prepared for every eventuality except one.

I am incapable of keeping a plant alive! Leaves wither and die at my touch. No amount of water, or shade, or sunlight will keep this plant alive. Any thought of successfully growing a tomato has long since left my mind. At this point, keeping the leaves green will feel like a victory. It gets closer to death by the hour and as I pluck off the shriveled crisp brown leaves in the hope of rejuvenating the rest of the plant, it just invites another leaf to wither away in its place.

We'll continue to buy our tomatoes at the supermarket for the foreseeable future, since I think it's safe to say that this sad little plant won't be paying for itself anytime soon.