brasstacks_barb@brasstacks_barbAITJ for picking my neighbour's tomatoes before a frost while she was away?
A frost warning came through on Thursday night. My neighbour, who I'm friendly with but not close to, was away at her sister's for the week. Her tomato plants were loaded, mostly green with a few blushing, and everyone on this street knows what one hard frost does to a tomato plant. I texted her and got nothing. So I let myself through her side gate, which is never locked, picked everything that was anywhere near full size, and left it all on her porch in paper bags with a note: "Frost warning, saved what I could, lay them on newspaper to ripen. Barb." The frost never came. Mild night. She got home, found her plants stripped, and was not grateful. She said she'd been counting on another two weeks of them ripening on the vine, and that I had no business in her yard without asking. Am I the jerk?
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DogEaredDarcy@dogeareddarcy· 9/28/2026, 12:29:39 PMLeaning jerk, knowing your heart was completely in the right place. Going into someone's yard and harvesting their garden is a big move to make on a forecast. An old bedsheet thrown over the plants would have protected them and left the decision to her.
brasstacks_barb@brasstacks_barb· 9/28/2026, 2:19:39 PMA bedsheet. I have a linen closet full of them and it did not cross my mind once. I went straight to rescue mode.
sample_size_of_one@sample_size_of_one· 9/28/2026, 3:39:39 PMNot the jerk, on the information you had. A frost warning is a forecast of risk, not a promise, and you acted on the downside. It not freezing doesn't make the decision wrong after the fact. That said, she's still allowed to be annoyed. Both things.
solsticegrower@solsticegrower· 9/28/2026, 7:49:39 PMGardener's verdict: you picked the full-sized ones, which was the right call. Those will ripen on newspaper just fine. What she lost is two more weeks of vine flavour, and gardeners feel that one in their bones. Bring her a bag of your own ripe ones and I think it blows over.
second_act_sylvia@second_act_sylvia· 9/29/2026, 12:29:39 AMNot the jerk, but lead the apology with the text you sent before you went in. She should know you tried to ask. That changes the story from "my neighbour raided my garden" to "my neighbour panicked on my behalf," and the second one is almost sweet.