If I Plant it, it Will Grow – Cultivating Patience

As a society in general we spend our lives waiting, and in effect “wishing our lives away” …waiting for the weekend, waiting for vacation, waiting for our birthdays or holidays and the list goes on and on.  We don’t focus enough on the present moments in life and get impatient waiting for things to happen or events to occur.  I often find myself guilty of this and catch myself thinking “I can’t wait until my seeds come up, I can’t wait until my plants get bigger, I can’t wait until my tomatoes form, I can’t wait until I can pick and eat my tomatoes”.  Gardening is a great teacher and cultivator of patience.  It teaches us that in due time we will be rewarded by our patience when we take that first bite of a delicious sun ripened tomato or make a salad from lettuce just picked out of the garden.  Instead of spending our lives waiting and becoming impatient, why not appreciate and enjoy each moment, being still and observing all that is good in that very moment.

Growing tomatoes from seeds

to

seedlings

… to the garden.

Growing Tomatoes From Seed For the First Time – What I learned:

I started a variety of heirloom tomatoes from seed for the first time this year.  It still amazes me that I took a tiny seed, planted it and look what I have now!  Nature is quite simply amazing!.

Besides cultivating patience, I have learned things that I will do differently next year.  I started my tomatoes too early (March 10^th).

Our last frost date here in Ohio is May 21^st.  Next year I plan to start my seeds inside the last week of March or the first week of April.  They grew so fast!!  I will also have a fan circulating around the tomato plants while they are growing under the lights.  This will encourage the tomatoes to develop thicker, stronger stems.  I will also be sure to keep the tomato plants 1-2 inches from the light.  I had tomato plants this year growing in different heights, and the tomatoes that were furthest away from the light grew leggy as they had to reach higher to grow to the light.  All is not lost if your tomato plants are too leggy!  I had quite a few like that this season and I planted them as deep as I could go up to the first set of leaves.

Soon … my patience will be rewarded and I will be enjoying tomatoes from my garden.  I am growing 20 tomato plants this season and plan to can salsa, sauce and enjoy many Caprese salads!

In addition to vegetables gardens I also enjoy several flower gardens throughout my yard:

Happy Gardening and remember to enjoy the moments in life!