It lives!

Hey, look! My tomatoes are perking up! No, really! This is pretty darned perky compared to earlier this summer. My whining strategy seems to have worked. Maybe I'll market whining as a "green" alternative to chemical fertilizers. Watch out, Miracle-Gro!

And honestly -- my strategy truly is green -- as in, I was green with envy over my friend's lush tropical tomato paradise. Heh! -- hang on a minute while I slap my knee . . . .

OK, so we're only talking kind of perky. Ironically, up until now this was the only plant that had produced any fruit. Very, very small fruit.

But check it out! This is almost respectable! You can even see more teeny, tiny tomatoes yearning to be big, grown-up tomatoes -- and then be eaten.

And this right here is a bona fide cluster of tomatoes. Eat your heart out, Coleen!

But -- in other garden news . . . .

Things are not looking so good for the spud plant. We may be emigrating to Ireland after all. Do you think they have signs posted in shop windows: "No dogs or Americans"?