#35 Grow a Vegetable

Those who know my family pretty well might be surprised that I am in no way a green thumb.  I spent almost my entire life growing up in a little neighborhood in the country, and my parents fully embraced the country lifestyle.  My yard is filled with wildflowers my dad planted, lilac bushes, daisies, and a row of apple trees.  Every year my family makes a trip to the greenhouse to buy seasonal plants to cover our back deck and the steps in front of our house, as well as hanging plants to hang from the roof.  My sister planted sunflowers in our backyard and tends to a few miscellaneous flowers and vegetables over the summer, and my mom almost always buys a tomato plant.  In the very back of our house is a moderately large garden with flowers that bloom every year, like daffodils and tulips.  When I was younger, we tried planting things like carrots in that garden, and I remember digging up and eating the little orange roots well before it was time to harvest them.  We also have rhubarb plants in the very back of the lawn, and for a while I remember eating from berry bushes, as well.

While I was able to enjoy the beautiful flowers and eat the delicious fruit throughout my life, I always had little to no part in taking care of them.  Sometimes my mom would buy me a flower plant or two at the greenhouse, and I would keep it by the window of my room in a little pot.  But it almost always would die.  And I usually didn't care to do much to prevent it.  This isn't to say I'm not a responsible, nurturing person-- I've had plenty of pets to take care of over the course of my life.  Plants just weren't nearly as interesting to me.

When I initially moved out of the house, I didn't miss the country too much.  In the cities there are still plenty of trees, daffodils, tulips and lilacs.  But over time, I began to miss the over abundance of flowers and vegetables.  My remedy was buying myself flowers at the grocery store for a while, and putting them on the kitchen table or by my bed.  But when I started to pay student loans and I had less spending money, it became too expensive to continually buy short-lived flowers.

This year, I decided to buy myself a plant to take care of over the summer.  Since I spend the majority of my waking hours at Brian's, I kept it outside of his apartment.  While I hate the fact that he lives in a dirty dungeon of a basement, it actually is a really nice place to live during the summer.  The apartment is really more of a house divided into separate living spaces.  In the front yard, the caretaker planted rose bushes, and there are flowers alongside the house.  The backyard has a fenced in area where Sadie can run around.  Within this fenced in area is a bench, a few chairs and dozens of plants-- which I assume belong to several of the tenants in the building.  It was a perfect place for a tomato plant (granted the dogs wouldn't eat it), with plenty of sunshine, a garden hose, and even a large watering can someone kept outside.

I bought the plant in May, when I was sure the weather would stay warm.  It would have been a perfect time to buy it, except I got sick with the flu almost immediately after and it lasted almost two weeks.  Since I had just bought the plant and hadn't developed a routine of watering it, I completely forgot about it!  And, of course, that week was one of the most beautiful weeks we've ever had yet, with 80 degree weather and sunshine almost every day.  Not only was this a huge bummer since I was stuck inside on the couch, but my poor plant was exposed to an incredible amount of sunlight and high heat with no one to water it.  It was pretty terrible.  I finally was able to check on it after about five days and, to my surprise, the soil was wet and the plant was still alive!  One of Brian's wonderful neighbors was kind enough to water it for me-- at least a few times.  I'm sure they had no idea I was sick and they were doing me a huge favor-- they probably didn't think much of it.  But, without them, my tomato plant would definitely not have survived!

Unfortunately, even though I watered it fairly regularly afterwards (I will admit I forgot to a few times here and there), parts of it did end up wilting and dying.  So, as a whole, the tomato plant was probably less fruitful than it could have been.  But a few weeks ago, I spotted a little green tomato on the vine and it has already grown to be a fairly significant size!

My tomato has a long way to go still and I'm sure I won't be able to report a ripe red tomato before my bucket list expiration date (just over a week from today.)  But I prematurely consider this a success!  I don't think I will never be a green thumb like my parents, and I'm okay with this.  But I'm glad that I am at least capable of taking care of a small tomato plant like this one.  And maybe someday I will be able to take care of a beautiful yard of flowers and vegetables similar to my family's.  This year was a big first step in the right direction. :)