Killing with kindness
If you're like me, you grew up in a household where plants were everywhere. They were all over the house, and there was a highly productive garden in the back yard. I grew up learning how to care for and appreciate plants of all kinds. So how did I become the smiling plant assassin?
When I got married and moved my wife to Colorado, she was into plants in a big way, and I again had plants all over the place. It seemed like I was never going to escape them again. Something changed, however, when she challenged me to grow tomatoes. It's still not a common thing to do when you live in an apartment, and a lot of bitchy managers don't like all those plants and stuff on the balcony, even though you're paying for the space (one reasons we moved out). Our balcony was on the north west side, so it was going to be tough. I decided to grow something that didn't require the full 8 hours to get by--cherry tomatoes. They were a success, and we had plenty of them for that summer, our last in Colorado.
Now that we're living a simpler life, closer to nature and it's cycles, we're growing some of our own produce. Its not just a financial choice, although with prices doing what they are that is part of it, but it's also the perfect opportunity to get back into that part of my past where growing your food was just what you did. I no longer look at it as a chore or burden, like I did even two years ago with those cherry tomatoes on the balcony or a year ago with our first attempt at gardening at the homestead. Now I understand the privilege and honor that I have to get my hands into some soil, tend a garden, grow some food and provide for my family.
Having been about 15 or so years removed from all that gardening experience, I've lost a lot of what my mother taught me, but it's slowly coming back. A perfect example is over watering the tomatoes. Most of the time, tomatoes don't need watering every day, especially when you've got your soil mixtures set up to retain water. Even plants that are the same height or age require different watering schedules and it's something the plant will tell you if you know the signs. My tomatoes are telling me that daily watering is just too much so I'm going to back it off to once every three and see how we do. It also hasn't been really hot that much. That's another thing I'm going to have to learn, the local weather patterns. We moved here last year and I lived in Colorado almost twelve years prior, so I knew how the weather worked there and when to expect what. I have to learn that all over again. It's a good thing my wife is from this area!
