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Chip’s tomato legacy

Last year I did battle with a little fella who I called Chip from Disney’s Chip and Dale fame.
He diligently worked his way through the food supply in my yard. First it was chokecherries and then it was on to my cherry tomatoes.
I thoroughly enjoyed watching him scamper around the yard, but I did not enjoy him reaping the fruits of my labour. He often ate a bit of one tomato and a bit of another.
That annoyed me to no end. I thought of exterminating the little critter but just couldn’t bring myself to actually do it.
Then winter came and the battle with him was over. I rarely saw him this summer. Perhaps he had indigestion all winter from the tomatoes or perhaps he moved on to greener pastures.
He did however leave a bit of a legacy behind.
I chose to plant my tomatoes outside of my flower garden in the back yard this year as the plants tended to take over last year. My tomato plants did well in the yard and my backyard flower garden did to. About mid-July I noticed some plants growing in two places of that flower garden that looked like tomato plants. At first I thought they were weeds but decided to let them grow a while longer.
Soon they were producing flowers and were clearly tomato plants. However I had not planted any tomatoes there. The only thing I could think of was that Chip had decided to pay me back for his feast the year before.
I guess his bad eating habit of only eating a part of one was a good thing. The plants reseeded themselves and boy were the tomatoes good! Some of them cherry tomatoes were the size of a toonie buck.
Thanks Chip... hope to see you next year!
–Until then,
Ken