The Reluctant Gardener

They call them “volunteer plants”. Perfectly good seeds that sprout in random places without the help of a deliberate seed sower. For the life of me I can’t imagine why a perfectly good tomato seed would “volunteer” to grace the rocky slope in my back yard. But there it was, thriving midst the weeds when my grandson found it!

Much too great a treasure to be tossed, he rescued it from the weed heap, roots intact, presenting it to be potted! With every single ounce of green in me (single ounce pretty much describes it!) we managed to find an empty paint pail, some unused potting soil where I had buried other plants alive, and a tomato cage to support what would, or at least should, become a bushel of plump rosy fruit!

The first few days were touch and go, the poor plant’s limbs drooping over its wire cage. I’m sure by now it realized the dreadful mistake it had made choosing my yard. I think I even heard its faint screams…”help meeee”…pleading, as only a failing tomato can, for someone to rescue it! I watered it, moved it into the sun, then to the shade, feeling a bit like a new parent. What to do? Too wet, too dry? I didn’t expect it to survive, but I was determined, mostly for my grandson’s sake, who would be back in a few weeks to tend the lawn again, no doubt eager to examine the budding life left in my charge.

I don’t know quite how to explain it. A miracle maybe? Just two weeks later, that limp little tomato plant has beaten the odds and even has three plump green globes…real tomatoes…to show for it! Not that I can take any true credit for this amazing turn of events. I am, after all, a notorious serial plant killer! But a bit of natural intervention, the rain…the overcast skies…the stifling humidity of the past few weeks were perhaps not sent to torment me, but to save that little plant from doom and to teach me something about myself.

The lesson? Before owning…believing the negative labels I tend to give myself based on the past, I should take my cues from Nature who presents us with mornings every…single…day…that are new and full of potential, where anything is possible…even tomatoes from a reluctant gardener like me…

…and I’m thinking out loud here…I just might want to plant a few tomato plants of my own when next season comes around! 😊

~ kat…”budding grasshopper gardener in training” (formerly known as “notorious serial plant killer”) ~ Summer 2015