You Say Tomato

Is the tomato a fruit?  Is it a vegetable?  I'm not sure and I don’t really care.  I know I like to eat tomatoes and I also like to grow them.  Most of my relatives on my dad’s side grew (and continue to grow) vegetables in their spacious suburban back yards.  It helps that Illinois, Indiana and Michigan have the dark loamy soil and the hot humid nights essential for optimal vegetable production.  My maternal grandmother did not grow vegetables, but she had several sour cherry trees – good for making pies – and beautiful rose bushes.

Growing up, my dad was responsible for vegetables and trees and my mom grew flowers.  My mom started most of her annuals from seeds – placing seeds in peat pots in long metal trays that my dad made for her.  We purchased most of our vegetable plants – including 36 tomato plants for our family of three – at a local garden center.  

I had my own patch in the back yard – four foot square and bordered by red bricks.  Most years, I grew marigolds – they keep the bug population at bay – and several kinds of lettuce, green beans and cherry tomatoes.  Obsessed as I was with Charlie Brown and Snoopy, I made multiple unsuccessful attempts at growing a Great Pumpkin.

Much like skiing and snowboarding, I believe gardening is a great family activity.  Furthermore, children can learn math, science, money management, nutrition and more in the context of the family garden.  What child doesn’t enjoy playing with dirt and looking for bugs?  

If a child grows his/her salad, he/she will most likely eat it – and encourage everyone else to do so as well.  Tomatoes now come in purple, yellow and red and green stripes in addition to the more mundane red ones.  So much fun!  For Christians, gardening also provides an excellent entrée into Bible stories like Creation (Genesis 1), the Parable of the Sower (Mark 4) and the story of the vine and the branches (John 15).

To celebrate being hired by Xerox, I purchased two patio tomato plants and a red bell pepper plant at King Soopers.  They did not have any basil plants left.  You can buy one basil plant for about the same price as two packages of fresh basil from the produce department.  

On Fourth of July, I went to O’Tooles Garden Center and purchased three big containers and some wire supports for the tomatoes and peppers.  At some point, I will go back and get tomato food, a watering can (because I don't want to contaminate my Nalgene water bottle with fertilizer) and some wheels so I can scoot my plants around.  If my tomato experiment bears fruit – pun fully intended – I plan to purchase self watering vegetable planters that are waist-high and have built in wheels for next year.