Dreaming About Tomatoes

I was dreaming about ripe tomatoes growing in my back yard last night. It really is not so far-fetched, because I have tomato plants growing in my raised beds. The beds are unique because I made them out of an old travel car topper. I disconnected the top from the bottom, drilled some big holes for drainage and to give the worms access (don't cringe, you need the worms), filled it with dirt from the "giant's grave" (you'll have to go back to my earlier blog post about that), and my tomatoes are thriving.

Last year, my tomatoes did great but something got at them before I had a chance to harvest them. This year, my daughter's in-laws gave me four plants for an Illinois tomato (thanks Diane and Chuck) . The plants are growing well in my raised bed and have produced several green tomatoes. One day this week I am going to put some chicken wire around them in an effort to protect them from the birds and creatures that want to keep them for themselves.

The tomatoes I planted last year were heirlooms (Cherokee purple, yellow tomatoes, beefsteak) and some of the half-eaten fruit fell back into the bed and left seeds which have now started to germinate. I have loads and loads of baby tomato plants now, but I don't know what kind they are. I have to wait for them to grow and produce fruit before I know... but I do know for sure they are tomatoes.

That is how my stories work, too — there are all sorts of seeds of thought that I write down on paper and I have to wait for those seeds to germinate and grow to know what I've got. Sometimes I know what I have, but I still have to let it grow and produce fruit before it is ready to go on stage and be shared. Once the story is shared, there is potential for others to grab some of the seeds and they can grow their own stories.

I dreamed about tomatoes last night. What seeds of story are you growing?

The Giant's Grave

I have a seriously big mulch pile in my driveway, and a giant's grave is in my back yard. I hear you: "A giant's grave?" Yep. 

Remember the story of Jack and the beanstalk? Well, when Jack cut down the beanstalk, and the giant landed in my backyard...

I'm a storyteller. It's all about the story.

So, what is the giant's grave really? When the houses were built in our neighborhood, much of the construction debris was buried in our backyard. As time has passed, that debris has broken down and left a couple of large sink holes. We’ve just kept filling the sink holes with leaves, branches and garden debris. 

To tidy it up we put wood chips on top, which brings me to the seriously big mulch pile in my driveway. I get mulch for free. When a neighbor is having a tree taken down, I usually ask for the chipped wood. More often than not, the landscape companies are glad to drop the chips in my driveway, because it saves them from paying a charge at the local dump. It saves me money, because I don't have to buy mulch. 

After years of putting all this organic debris on the giant's grave, I’ve been left with some really rich soil. You’d think that I would have finished filling up those sink holes by now, and actually I have. I just keep unfilling them and using the soil in other places in my garden. I suppose I could just leave it there and let the grass grow, but then what would happen to the story about the giant's grave? 

On-purpose Repurposing

I don’t always use things for the purpose for which they were intended. I also try to keep things out of the landfills and repurpose them whenever possible. So I'm happy when I find creative ways to solve problems using items that would otherwise be discarded. As they say, necessity is the mother of invention.

Crockpot Lid

• PROBLEM: My cat, Jovi, loved to steal trash out of the living room trash can. I needed to find a way to outwit a very smart and determined feline. (Meet Jovi here.)
• SOLUTION: I pulled out an old lid I had saved from a broken crockpot and put it on the trashcan. Problem solved — the trash now stays where it belongs.

Grated Cheese Container

• PROBLEM: I buy cleansers for cleaning which would often tip over under the sink, leaving a big mess for me to sweep up. Then the container would get wet, so I'd have to throw out the whole thing because of the moisture destroying the cardboard container and the cleanser inside. Grrrrrr.
• SOLUTION: The parmesan cheese you get to shake on pasta (we call it "shaky cheese" in my family) comes in a great plastic container that can be reused. I save these containers and use them for my cleanser. The lid snaps shut, the plastic does not absorb moisture and you can see the product. I use a sharpie marker to label the containers — problem solved. Those containers also work great for beads and glitter, by the way.

It’s a new year, so find a new use for something you have then tell me what you did — I’d love to hear about it in the comments below! Meanwhile, get inspired by the repurposing ideas online at Upcycled Wonders and My Repurposed Life.