My Father's Tomato Plants
Every Spring my Dad would start his tomato plants from seed. He would put them in the small starter pots on the window shelf in the back room. When it was time he would plant them in the raised planter boxes he built and put on the South side of the house; It was right behind the bedroom he had built for me downstairs after I got MS. He would put tomato cages around the little plantlets so they would be supported as they grew up. One year, I think it was 1983 - two years after my diagnosis, I put some marijuana seeds between his cages -- then I forgot about them not really thinking they would grow. Under my Dad's care, with frequent watering and a healthy dose of Miracle-Gro, topped off with a hot Summer, grow they did. One day Dad was showing off his boxes to my cousin Mike who recognized what I had done --- he started banging on my wall as I was taking a shower! It turns out that by then my plants were as tall as the tomatoes -- as tall as the cages. I'm sure my...