What Gardeners Do in the Winter

As a gardener, once you get that dirt under your fingernails, it's hard to get it back out.  So those of us who spend the entire summer barefoot and smelling slightly of tomato plants find the winter quite a challenge.

Late this fall, I discovered a volunteer tomato bravely starting out life in the garden.  It certainly had no chance in life just sitting in the soon-to-freeze ground, so I transplanted it to a container and put it in the sunroom.

Later, it got too cold in the sunroom, even under grow lights, for such a tender plant, so I moved it into the kitchen where it could sit atop the dishwasher and enjoy the heat, humidity, and companionship available.  It also got to enjoy a grow light I have hanging in the kitchen.

So here we are.  December 17.  Snow outside on the ground, temps below freezing, and I have a tomato plant that desperately wants a garden.  It has the beginnings of little buds on it and everything.  And I still can't bear to throw it out, even though it is behaving as if I live in the temperate zone rather than the frozen north.

Chances are about 50/50 that I will succumb to my desire to garden and wind up dragging a large container into my foyer after Christmas to see if I can let this tomato plant continue to grow.  I am sorely tempted by the idea of getting a cheap pole lamp and a few extra grow bulbs, just to give it a fighting chance.  At the rate this is going, my little tomato plant really wants to bear fruit in February.  I just might let it.

And that is what gardeners do in the winter.