ROGERS — There's nothing like setting a table with the bounty of your own garden. On Sunday, I managed to gather two of our three children to share the crop it took me all summer to grow. We had shish-kabob featuring one slightly deformed bell pepper.

I used to love my garden when the kids were little and we lived in Kentucky. We had a big garden and I spent a lot of time in it. Of course, it helped that I didn't have a job at that time.

I was the one that people ran away from when they saw the laundry basket full of zucchini under my arm. Squash of all kinds was my specialty because it's actually pretty easy to grow. I still have several cookbooks dedicated to squash. No one really liked the zucchini bread, muffins, pancakes and casseroles, but as long as some of the squash got used up, I didn't care.

I gave up the big garden when we moved to the suburbs and made do with a few tomatoes plants hidden behind the shrubs on our suburban front lawn. When we moved to the lake, I wanted another vegetable garden.

Although we're in a rural area again, I soon realized that a garden wouldn't be easy. Our yard is mostly rocks covered by the thinnest layer of top soil.

But I couldn't get it out of my head. Every spring, I had the urge to go outside and bury my hands in the dirt. I looked longingly at the starter plants that appeared in Wal-Mart each April and tried to figure out a way I could bring them home.

That's when I saw the commercial for the Upsidedown Tomato Planters. I knew immediately that my problems were solved. I would be back in the gardening business.

I don't remember why I didn't order them myself, but it was actually my husband who made the call. I was surprised when he told me how much it cost. He probably didn't realize that we could have bought a bushel of tomatoes at the Farmer's Market for the cost of one Upside-down Tomato Planter. He bought two.

I didn't stop there. By hanging the two tomato plants over my deck, I would have room on the deck for a couple of Jalapeno pepper plants. Then I filled up my kitchen window sill with herbs. I knew that by the end of the summer I would be making my own salsa with ingredients I grew myself.

I'm not sure exactly what went wrong with the tomato plants. I watered them faithfully and hung them in direct sunlight, but the plants themselves never got very big. If I hadn't seen the commercial, I would think tomatoes don't like growing upside down. But then the first tomato appeared. I checked it every day and watched it grow and then slowly turn red. It wasn't very big, but I knew it would be the best tomato ever.

Down the street, our neighbors were complaining about the deer, but I knew I had outsmarted them by hanging my tomatoes on the second floor deck. I laughed at the deer.

Finally, I decided it was time. I went out to the deck to pick my tomato and it was gone. I couldn't believe my eyes. I looked all around to see if it could have fallen, but there was no sign of it. I wondered if it was a practical joke but no one ever confessed. But there was another green tomato on the other plant, so I didn't worry too much.

Eventually, my two expen sive Upside-down Tomato Planters produced a total of four tomatoes, but each one disappeared just before it was ready to eat.

Then the pepper appeared near the top of my Jalapeno plant. I knew right away that it was an odd shape for a Jalapeno, but it wasn't until it got larger that I figured out I was growing bell peppers. Oh well, I thought, I can use bell peppers. But one day I stepped out on the deck and found the pepper plant touching the ground. The plant was broken between the big clay pot and the single deformed pepper.

That's when I developed my theory that the practical joker stealing my tomatoes was an animal. I suspect a raccoon, although no one, not even our two dogs, has seen it. I guess raccoons don't like peppers very much.

I wasn't going to eat the pepper that the raccoon might have tasted, but then I realized it was the only produce I would get from my deck garden for the year and I wanted the family to eat my homegrown produce. I washed it well and skewered it with the shish-kabob. Then I made everyone in the family taste it.

It wasn't easy. No one in the family likes bell peppers very much, but we all enjoyed the satisfaction of eating homegrown produce. Kind of...

Reporter Lynn Atkins can be contacted by e-mail at lynna@nwanews.com.

Opinion, Pages 4 on 10/07/2009

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