Eat your heart out, Miracle Gro

At the end of May, I planted a few edibles in the garden - I stuck some peppers and tomatoes in the only sunny flower bed on the property, and put two cherry tomato plants in pots near the patio, one red, one golden.

Things have gone swimmingly; we've been able to pluck cherry tomatoes while sitting outside at the table to toss into our salads or mouths, and barring a few unforeseen circumstances (like dogs surreptitiously helping themselves to a few ripe peppers, branches and all), we've had plum, black (honestly, BLACK) tomatoes, and white and chocolate brown peppers.

Lately, though, things have gotten a little, er, out of hand. In the space of about a week, my cherry tomato plants have gone from civilized, staked, well-behaved individuals to this:

Note: dogs added for scale, but against their will

I have no idea where the stakes have gone, I cannot even find the pots they're planted in, and this cherry tomato jungle has encroached on the lawn to the point where I have to cut a wide swath around it, because frankly, I'm afraid to get it mad.

I'm currently listening to The Tommyknockers, by Steven King, about the effects of alien nuclear power on a town, and, well, I'm just saying things have gotten VERY weird and out of hand here, and really, who knows where aliens might find themselves... there have been some new people in the neighborhood recently, and none of us knows much about them at all...

I'm afraid...