“Make no mistake about this: You can never make a fool out of God. Whatever you plant is what you’ll harvest.”
‭‭Galatians‬ ‭6:7‬ ‭GW‬‬

Mr. FixIt has a blueberry bush. I’ve never raised blueberries, nor have I seen a blueberry bush. But, he has one and he’s darned proud of that thing. He’s been babying it for years. He had a cage around it to keep the birds and deer away from his beloved blueberries, but over time, the wood rotted and the gizmo collapsed over the winter. This spring, Mr. FixIt (who happens to be a mechanical engineer) drew up plans for a fool proof contraption to replace it. He decided to use PVC pipe, which is brilliant. It won’t rot or get termites. He took off for the hardware store and came back with everything he needed, including bird netting to put around the whole thing. Sixty-five dollars later, he had this impressive cage build and anchored to the ground. There was NOTHING going to ruin his berry harvest this year.

The first day I came home and saw this thing out in the field, it vaguely resembled a teeny-tiny batting cage. It really stood out with the stark white of the PVC against the lush green backdrop. So, Mr. FixIt went back to the hardware store for green paint for camouflage. It turned out to be John Deere green, but it was a darn sight better than it was before.

We have checked this little bush every week and were thrilled to see the first green berries begin to form. Finally, yesterday…Mr. FixIt announce it was time to harvest the berries! He asked if I wanted to come along and being that I am ever watchful for blog-worthy moments, I trotted along behind him with my camera. He carried the mixing pitcher that I use for making pancakes. I was excited. I bought pie crusts in anticipation.

With great fanfare, Mr. FixIt carefully lifted the cage off the bush so he wouldn’t knock off any berries, and we set to picking. Well…HE set to picking. I documented the event for posterity. He finished and I peeked into the pitcher. There were forty-nine berries. Well, there were fifty, but one was under-ripe so we tossed it. I pulled out my phone and brought up the calculator. $65.00 for the PVC contraption. $5.00 for the paint. 49 berries. That comes out to $1.53 per berry. Not bad. It reminds me of the Great Tomato Harvest of 2010.

Mr. Virgo and I decided we wanted to grow tomatoes. We saw those Topsy-Turvy hanging baskets for growing tomatoes and decided that was the perfect thing for the patio of our rental home in Denver. I bought two of them, because…after all…the commercial showed a huge bumper crop and I’m picturing making salsa! I bought two really big tomato plants because Colorado has such a short growing season and I needed a head start. Add a bag of topsoil and you’ve got $75.00 invested in this little gardening project.

My first problem was trying to plant the tomatoes in the containers. The gigantic root ball would not fit in the small opening in the bottom of the Topsy-Turvy thingy so I had to squeeze and mash the roots up to get it to go through. I filled the container with top solid from the top…about a half bag each. Then I hung the whole shebang from two “S” hooks at the edge of the covered patio. I dragged the hose over and gave them a good soaking and went in the house. When Mr. Virgo got home, I told him to go out and look at my handiwork and he called for me to join him. Apparently, when you add multiple gallons of water to half a bag of topsoil and a tomato plant, things get pretty heavy. The “S” hook stretched out and both the plants and the containers were now lying in a muddy mess on the patio.

I picked up the first one and the plant had broken clean off at the roots and wasn’t salvageable. I picked up the second one and half-dragged it out to the old swingset where I wired it up so it wouldn’t fall again. I babied that thing all summer and by the first frost I had….one tomato. My $75 tomato. I could relate to Mr. FixIt’s disappointment.

With thoughts of warm blueberry cobbler and ice cream dissolving right in front of me, I assured Mr. FixIt his berries would taste delicious over our cereal and we will revel in their sweetness. And, we still have a really sturdy blueberry cage to protect NEXT year’s bumper crop! ❤