Dog Parenting for Dummies

Oh my, tonight I'm feeling like the bad parent. Earlier this evening, Charles and I snuck around the back side of the garage with Charles growling like a mean, gnarling dog and jumped out frightening our sweet little General. All in good fun. I grabbed him up immediately and hugged and kissed on him as he realized we weren't the big dog.

But earlier today I found a slew of cherry tomatoes on the vine and after I picked a few I gave one to General and then another and then another. He must have eaten 4-5. He seems to really like them. I realized this a few weeks ago when he found one that had fallen to the ground. He found it and devoured it immediately.

As I went to pick one more this evening and give it to General so that Charles could watch, Charles asked, "Aren't tomatoes poisonous to dogs." I said, "Nah." He's eaten them before.

Well low and behold I do a quick Google search with the keywords Dogs and Tomatoes and wouldn't you know the first 4 searches tell me what I now fear - Yes! They're poisonous. Okay, I didn't actually open the pages, because denial can save us somewhat, yes? Why the heck open them to find all the problems with feeding tomatoes to my precious General.

I'd prefer to live the Scarlett O'Hara quote: "I can't think about that right now. If I do, I'll go crazy. I'll think about that tomorrow."

Oh, but didn't he look cute with that t'mater?

And since we're talking about tomatoes I thought I'd leave you with the lines of one of my favorite veggie tunes by the Blue Dogs.

Homegrown Tomatoes

There's nothin' in the world that I like better than
Bacon, lettuce and home grown tomatoes
Up in the morning and out in the garden
Lord get you a ripe one, don't get a hard 'un.
Plant 'em in the spring eat 'em in the summer,
All winter without 'em's a culinary bummer.
I forget all about the sweatin and the diggin
Every time I go out and pick me a big'un.
Home grown tomatoes, home grown tomatoes,
What'd life be without home grown Tomatoes,
There's only two things that money can't buy:
That's true love and home grown tomatoes . . .

Bring on the Lycopene!

So, I started these little tomato plants when we were living in the apartment and I never planted them into any pots though. I simply kept them in the containers they came in.

I purchased four heirloom tomato plants at Gardens. But Charles complained and asked why I didn't purchase any Beefsteak tomatoes. So, shortly after my first purchase I purchased three additional "normal" tomato plants to appease the boy.

A few weeks after we moved into our new house I finally transplanted the silly little tomatoes and their sister basil, rosemary and their companion marigold plants. I used tomato fertilizer and some nifty organic veggie starter mix that I also purchased at Gardens. See . . .

Oh, and a quick aside, when I was on college one of my jobs was at a great organic garden center, Gardenville, in San Marcos, Texas. It was there that Martha Latta taught me about herbs and companion planting. Marigolds are great with tomatoes because they keep away aphids or at least I thought until I looked it up online to hyperlink you to more info. Either way, click here for more info on companion planting.

In only a matter of a month look what they've become. Okay, so look past the weeds and tall grass growing around their base. We'll get to that soon enough.

So far, I've munched on a few Cherry tomatoes and those seem to be the most prolific, but the heirloom tomatoes are putting on a good show right now.

Whohoo! I love my 'maters! Want some?