I said, “Thank you.”
She said, “Can I watch when it happens?”
I said, “I will position a lawn chair.”
The garden redesign.
Here is the part that required the most patience, and patience is something I have in abundance.
I redesigned the corner of my garden closest to Gary’s fence.
Out came the struggling basil and the crowded marigolds. I built two new raised beds in that corner—cedar planks, properly constructed, visually attractive. I planted tomatoes in the bed closer to the house. In the bed closest to the fence—the one most accessible from Gary’s step ladder—I planted the Carolina Reapers.
I planted them in among a few actual cherry tomato plants, the same variety I usually grow, so the overall visual profile of the bed looked completely normal. Green plants. Red fruits of similar size and shape.
The Reapers grew. They are vigorous plants once established. By midsummer they were lush and productive, covered in fruits that cycled from green to yellow to orange to the deep, glossy red of full ripeness.
I tended them carefully. I watered them, fertilized them, checked them for pests. I harvested my cherry tomatoes regularly so the beds stayed looking abundant and appealing.
I left the Carolina Reapers on the vine.
I did nothing to mark them. I did nothing to label them. They were in my garden, on my property, entirely legal, entirely mine.
I remounted the trail camera.
I went about my life.
And then came the evening of August 9th.
I was inside watching television at approximately 9:15 p.m. when the trail camera notification came through to my phone. I had set it to send an alert when triggered.
I looked at the notification: Motion detected.
I put down my remote control.
I went to the kitchen window.
I could see in the low light of the summer evening Gary Hutchins on his step ladder leaning over my fence, reaching into the raised bed closest to the fence line.
I watched him select several fruits. From this distance and in this light they looked red and small and round—exactly like cherry tomatoes.
He descended his ladder.