TOMATOES CAUSE QUARRELS

Ming and I have quarrelled.

(We never have before.)

It was at the garden centre.

Ming needed green manure. I wanted tomato seed.

(At least five varieties.)

He said - there isn't room in the garden - and it's too shady.

I said - we're not putting them in the garden, they're for the allotment.

He said - there isn't room on the allotment.

He said he wants to put in more onion sets there.

I said - that's a waste of space. Onions and potatoes can be bought in shops but the only way to eat tomatoes is to pluck them in the sunshine and put them straight into your mouth.

(They don't grow tomatoes on Mars. It's not warm enough.)

He said - he'll need space for broad beans.

I hate broad beans.

We compromised.

He bought his green manure.

I made do with a packet of

Pomadoro / Tomato Il Pantano Romanesco

(Perhaps I should learn Italian!)

I wanted seeds for purple carrots (with orange middles).

He said he wouldn't have room for them either.

Ok, I said, I'll grow them along my edges.

(I'm already growing beetroot in between box bushes. I too am running out anywhere to put anything!)

I wanted Sorrel.

He said we could pick it wild.

I said dogs might have peed on wild sorrel.

He said I'm too fussy.

(!)

Then he wanted a packet of beet spinach.

I said beet spinach is alright up to a point - but it grows tough if you don't eat it at precisely the right moment and we might not want to eat it at the right moment - we might want to eat something else.

He said the red stalks would remind him of Mars.

I said "Rubbish".

The man ahead of us at the cash till had his arms full of plants from the 'FOR SALE' table.

He was chortling away and telling everyone in the queue about his 'bargain'.

The plants were dead.

I'm glad I'm not married to him!

_ _ _ _ _

For Tomorrow

For earlier posts, click here, or on the blue barrow at the top of the sidebar.