A VERY FUNNY STORY

A VERY FUNNY STORY

We planted our garden this past spring. It usually consists of a number of varieties of tomatoes these days. It’s just getting too difficult to do all of the beans, onions, beets, and all of the other veggies we used to put in. My husband still has to put down a few squash seeds along with cucumbers and any other seeds he sees floating around the house.

His techniques for raising tomatoes are astonishing. I feel sorry for any tomato seed within ten miles of his grasp. But he’s a happy camper and a frustrated farmer. He starts by putting his seeds in one of those large flat trays that has a cover. He puts the tray on my hot pad. So far, so good? Well, not exactly. He forgets the need for light. Somehow the little seeds struggle out of the soil and start their journey. At some point, that I don’t fully understand, he takes the poor little things and shoves them into paper pots that he makes himself from the wooden pot maker he got through Burpee.

Before the snow is off of the ground, he thinks they should be hardened off. Every year I show him what the tomato book says about that. But he ignores all SOP and shoves the poor little thinks out onto the deck where they get blown to shreds from the winds and dry out for lack of water. Sudden temperature drops do not phase him. Somehow these loving seeds survive, proving there is a higher power. His faith and the seeds’ determination go hand in hand to the garden. There they spend the summer doing their best to bring forth fruit for him. He feeds them regularly but forgets the need for water. Every now and then they droop while he dreams of the beautiful red orbs that will eventually find their way to his BLT’s.

When fall starts to arrive, he harvests his produce with love and awe and generously shares with the neighbors. Summers are fascinating to watch around here. I watch from the kitchen as this partnership develops throughout the spring, summer, and fall. Every year I am amazed. My husband does his own thing and in his own way. I truly believe that the little seeds understand and accept their journey through their relatively short life. When you think about it, they both have faith, they both struggle, they both believe, and they both survive.

Amazing isn’t it?