She Nurtured Volunteer Tomato Plants for Weeks—Until Her Neighbor Claimed the Harvest and Caused a Drama
Shutterstock
Some people would rather nobody have something nice than have to share it.
What would you do if birds spread tomato seeds from your garden into the strip of dirt between your driveway and the one next door, and the plants started to grow?
That is what happened to the woman in this story, so she began watering those plants since they looked nicer than just dirt. One day, however, the neighbor saw her picking a tomato and yelled at her, saying that the plants and that land were hers.
So, rather than fight with her, she just stopped watering the plants and allowed them to die within a few weeks. Now nobody gets anything.
I think she handled the situation well, and at least she still has her own garden to get tomatoes from. Read through the full story below and see what you think.
Don’t touch the tomatoes? Okay, there will be none.
This happened to my mother recently.
There are plenty of houses set up like this.
For context, the neighbor and her have driveways that are side by side with a small patch of dirty/gravel and weeds between that is basically no-man’s-land and is just there.
It’s about a foot and a half wide, runs the length of the driveway and no one really takes care of it, leaving it as a border. My mom also has plenty of tomatoes growing in the backyard, including cherry tomatoes that are a favorite of crows stealing and other birds.
Tomatoes in this area would be much better than just dirt.
Now this spot was a favorite for birds to drop the tomatoes or pick them apart because there were no dogs there while there were in the backyard or main yards–or at least that’s how my mom tells it.
Eventually the seeds sprout and there are small tomato plants starting to grow. Noticing them, my mom begins to water them regularly as she waters her front yard plants as she has to walk by them with the hose anyways.
It is nice to have some bonus tomato plants.
This leads to cherry tomato plants sprouting and becoming incredibly fruitful between the driveways.
After a while, they were disappearing and my mom figured it was a combination of the birds and the wife of the neighbor couple because she was home all day.
Why would the neighbor be upset about this?
My mom didn’t care because these were just chance tomatoes, she had plenty in the backyard garden, and it was just nice to have something more than dirt and gravel between the driveways.
All was dandy until my mom went to grab a few to snack on while working in the front yard and the woman next door confronted her.
This lady is out of line.
She told my mother those were not her tomatoes and she needed to leave them alone.
The neighbor woman continued that the patch of dirt and gravel was on her property, not my mother’s (though our water meter was in it and ultimately it was likely a 50/50 split if you even cared to look, which when it was just nothing, no one cared to).
No need to fight about it.
So rather than argue with her, my mom said it was fine and she was leave them alone.
A few weeks later they had started to dry up and die without the frequent watering from my mom, eventually ending in the dirt and gravel patch becoming just that again.
This neighbor seems very childish and combative. Why cause drama when there isn’t a need for it?
Read on to see what the people in the comments have to say about the situation.
Sign up to get our BEST stories of the week straight to your inbox.
The neighbor deserves nothing.
This commenter is correct.
Exactly, and now nobody gets them.
This commenter has a fun tomato story.
If you enjoyed this post, check out this story about a man who stopped salting his neighbors’ driveways when they wouldn’t stop driving through his yard.
Some people seem to want to make everyone unhappy.
Her neighbor seems awful, but she was right to avoid the fight. It is funny how the neighbor didn’t get upset that the tomatoes were growing on ‘her’ property, just that this lady was picking a few.
It is hard to figure out how or why some people act the way they do. Honestly, it is quite sad, really.
Enjoyed this story?
Sign up to get our BEST stories of the week straight to your inbox.
