My grandmother used to say that we are “deep into summer once August rolls around.” She was alluding to the fact that by now her garden should finally be pumping out some veggies after the long waiting period of May seedlings to August mature fruit.

And so it goes like clockwork this week, August first to be exact, my tomatoes began to ripen. Like flipping a switch they surprised me one morning while I did my usual garden walk-around. The Reds and the yellows, the Big Boys and the Beefsteaks all finally started arriving ready to pick. I am particularly excited to see a new Heirloom Cherry called “Black Cherry” and “Hawaiian Pineapple” doing so well in my garden.

For me this season has been wonderfully pest free and varmint free however many of my neighbors have not been so lucky. As several of us exchanged stories over a friendly tomato swap in my driveway. I found that my neighbor Sandy was dealing with pesky chipmunks and some unidentified crawling bugs that kept nibbling and knocking off some of her tomatoes and devouring all of the fruit on her new blueberry bushes.

Being a practical Minnesotan she decided to outsmart those pesky varmints with a new invention that would revolutionize tomato growing. This invention would turn out to be so clever that I don’t know why we haven’t seen it before now. So this "Horticultural Tip of the Month Award" goes to my friend Sandy for discovering a new way to use zip lock sandwich bags. It not only speeds up the ripening process, but protects the tomatoes from birds, squirrels, chipmunks, ozone, air pollution, thunder, hale and heavy rains and just about anything else that may come it’s way.

It looks like a little greenhouse and I must say that even if a tomato happens to fall off its stem before you can be there to catch it…don’t worry the bag will catch it and hold it there away from any ground prowling varmints. The only thing that this earth shattering invention won’t prevent is keeping a nosey neighbor from sneaking a few of the itty bitty, ultra sweet honeydrop cherry tomatoes that I happen to be quite fond of personally.

Below, I have enclosed several photographs of this marvelous invention” in action” just in case anyone out there would like to give this a try in the future. Sandwich size or one gallon freezer bags will work depending upon the size of your fruit. Just enclose the fruit in the plastic bag and zip it closed so it attaches to the stem. Simple!!! Happy gardening.