Ages and eons ago, my best friend & I blew into this Kansas college town. We were homesick Colorado chicks suffocating in a tiny dorm room with no air conditioning, 110-degree days and the last puny fan left in town. And then there was the WIND. Every. Single. Blasted. Day! Unbelievably, you kind of get used to it. I know this because about a week after we arrived, we were walking to class and something seemed odd. We couldn't put a finger on it - what was so different that day? It took us a good 5 minutes to realize the wind had stopped.
Wind has cost us shingles, a van window, a van door, a few random pieces of mail, a tree, and large sections of a heavy wood fence that wound up in the neighbor’s yard. They called it straight-line winds – like a tornado, only it doesn’t go round and round.
All this wind makes gardening a challenge. I, of course, garden. I had what I would call average-ish gardens until we moved across town and gained a fabulous sunny garden with perfect soil. Suddenly my garden was above average-ish. I had tomatoes that grew full & tall - more surface for the wind to push around. It was common for the wind to have blown over several of my plants, wire cages and all, by summer’s end. Last year my husband had a brilliant idea - electrical conduit for tomato stakes. So, I walked into the hardware store/lumber yard place and asked for electrical conduit. As I was directed to the 10’ metal pipes, the sales guy asked if I needed whatever it is you usually need when you buy conduit. (He was more specific.) I said, “No, I’m using them to stake tomato plants.” Looking perplexed, he exclaimed, “Wow, you must grow killer tomatoes!” I explained about the wind issue and this was my solution. He seemed amused. It wasn’t until I was hauling the conduit into the garage that I realized I hadn’t mentioned to him that I was cutting them in half. Oops.
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Attack of the Killer Tomatoes!
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