All growing up my family planted tomatoes. I remember loving to go out and work with my family in our little garden each year. We always had carrots, zucchini, cucumbers, radishes, lettuce, green beans, and the favorite of all, tomatoes. Strangely I didn't learn as much about gardening as I did about other things in life. My grandparents also had one wall of their back yard that was lined with cherry tomato plants. They produced TONS of tomatoes. One of the things I will always remember about my grandparents was that we got to go out and pick tomatoes, rinse them in the pool, and then pop them into our mouths. They were great. Of coarse there were also LOTS of tomato sandwiches all summer too. I still can't go through the summer without eating my share of tomato sandwiches each year. Mmmmm.
This brings me to my point. I've always wanted to grow my own tomatoes so that I could share some of those things with my own family. Despite a few very lame efforts I have never been able to keep any plants alive let alone get any tomatoes to grow. With my grandpa's passing this year I decided I'd better make a serious effort since I couldn't mooch home grown tomatoes from the family anymore. I made a serious goal to get some tomato plants and actually grow some tomatoes in honor of my grandparents. I decided to make it a family affair so a few weeks ago for Family Home Evening we went to Home Depot (because you can return plants if they die) and bought 3 tomato plants. We then came home and planted them with the kids. The boys thought it was really fun to play in the dirt, and Jameson was really excited about the tomato plants. We then had a little lesson about how Heavenly Father gave us the earth to take care of. Then I explained how we would work hard to make our little tomato plants grow to show Heavenly Father we love, and will take care of the beautiful earth he gave us. I told Jameson if we took care of them they would grow tomatoes for us. Since then, every time we see them Jameson exclaims how our tomato plants are growing, and I look at them and think of my wonderful grandparents. I've loved watching them get a little taller, and then see a few blossoms, as I continued to pray that I wouldn't kill these little plants that now mean so much to Jameson and I. Yesterday as I was walking by I noticed something that gave me hope. There on my little plants were the first few little green tomatoes. I was so excited! I had to get a picture and I couldn't wait to show Jameson. So far we haven't killed off these special little plants, and now we may even be able to get them to produce tomatoes. It's amazing how such a little thing can mean so much. Here are the tough little plants we're so proud of with the first beginnings of the fruits of our labor. :)
6 comments:
They look amazing!! Congrats on being able to keep them alive! It's so great that you want to share that with your little family!!
I tried to grow some pretty little flowers in my kitchen. I set them in the window and was so excited about them - until one day, Jon closed the blinds and hid my flowers and then I forgot about them and then they somehow forgot to get watered and soon they died.....sad story....
What a neat tradition:) That is great that you get the kids involved. It looks like you will have a good crop this year!
Corinne? A gardner? I never thought those 2 words would go together!! Ha ha, JK. I actually want to get into it too, someday... someday.
Good for you! I so badly want a garden, but I also so badly want the attention span to follow through on one. That's so fun though!
Some things are just worth the effort. So, it is with tomatoes and kids. I know know that our gardens were a success, even though we never got a single ear of corn to maturity. You're awesome!!!
I didn't know you could grow all those things in AZ. Those were the things we grew in MT growing up. Good to know if we were to ever move back.
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