A Very Blessed Tomato Plant

By Michelle Fabio

How do you grow an 18-foot tomato plant?

Would you believe the answer just might be prayer?

Thrien Evans, 50, says that the oversized tomato plant outside his window begins to sway when he says his nightly prayers in its direction. He asks, of course, for “the Lord to keep it green.”

But it’s not prayer alone that has made this tomato plant so spectacular. Enter 90-year-old Ojetta Azalee Parker Smith, who shares the Georgetown, South Carolina garden space with Evans. In addition to tomatoes, the two also grow eggplant, cabbage, and collard greens.
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