Julie R Fricke

I specialize in raising plants that raise themselves. In other words, I'm no Jolly Giant Green Thumb of gardening. I have perfected the art of watering my plants entirely (almost) with runoff water from showers and dish washing but anything that doesn't get enough water this year is pretty much out of luck.

Enter my tomato plants. I am one person who has never had much luck with tomato plants (or squash or zuchini or any of those other things "anybody" can grow.) Thus, when I optimistically planted six tomato plants and they miraculously--after regular dousings with the aforementioned shower water--produced several big green tomatoes I was all kinds of excited.

Then one evening a week ago I was surveying my vast holdings of arable land and what should I spot but a gray rat-sized fellow followed directly by his long naked tail scurrying hastily out of my tomato plants. I immediately got a very bad feeling about the situation and turned my attention to my upcoming tomato harvest.

Not a one.

To say I was bummed is not an overstatement.

Today I googled "rat repellent." I'm going to be optimistic once again and try this recipe for a tomato spray against mammals:

4Tb Tabasco
1 quart water
1 tsp dish soap

Of course I'm hoping it will work.

And if it does, not only will I have tomatoes, I will even be able to skip that one step when cooking of adding spice to the recipes! I hope you like them hot!