Staking My Tomatoes

I love to garden and before we had children I was deemed a "green thumb."  These days, my thumb is a little less green than I'd like it to be.  Last year, we stumbled across this fantastic book on intensive gardening.  We implemented as much as we could to produce as much as possible in a little amount of space. The harvest was incredible.

This year, expecting our third child in July, my husband asked that I be a bit more conservative in how much I planted. So I scaled back in the quantity and diversity of plants but the biggest change was rather than twenty-two tomato plants, we have a mere fourteen. Fourteen of which, I haven't cared for like I should.

For those of you that garden you know the essentials of good tomatoes: fertile soil, good seeds, nurture, support, pruning, consistent watering and sun.  We have incredible soil, had fantastic seeds & baby starts, and sun.  We fell short on the a few of the other essentials like proper staking, fertilizer and consistent watering.

From my kitchen window my plants are sprawling, lush and green and beautiful. But, the closer you get the more you see how unruly they are and you'll notice that they are lacking fruit--their entire reason for existence!  I have 14 tomato plants who are barely producing or producing giant green fruit that isn't ripening. I can use the excuse that it is a rough year for tomatoes, but truth be told, there is a lot I should have been doing to help them.  I should have trained them up in the way they were to grow.

The same goes for my children as Proverbs 22:6 says, Train up a child in the way that he should go; even when he is old he will not depart from it.

There is a book I heard about long ago and revisited their website this week Raising Godly Tomatoes. And the parallel between raising tomatoes and raising children, while not perfect, is fantastic. Here is my mini-summary:

•  Start early - Just like with tomato seeds, with our children we should start their care early in the protection of our own home, in the fertile soil and compost that comes with our own sanctification, keeping a close eye on them always. Giving them water, ensuring they get sun, so that they gain strength to handle the outdoors.
• Once outdoors, they may still need cover and do need constant watch.
• We must provide a firm stake, cage or support system that will provide strength for the plants once the vines begin to produce heavy produce.
• Stay within a few feet of the plants always for unless we are within a couple feet of our tomatoes, we won't notice sucker branches, bugs or disease.  This is essential with our children.  If they are consistently in one room playing while we are in another cooking, cleaning, checking our email, there are way to many opportunities for weeds to take root, or vines to begin to grow that will later need to be painfully pruned.

Sometimes having little tomato plants under feet can get overwhelming (we must constantly watch where we step as not to crush them and it requires fruit of the spirit in our own lives: love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and self-control!)  Yes, it is much more consuming to bake bread with toddlers or clean bathrooms with them by my side and while this can be difficult, my favorite thing about tomato staking is summed up in this quote:

Involving far more than training for behavior, and more than "discipline," this (Tomato Staking) is a way of living that also involves mentoring, nurturing, loving, teaching, fellowshipping with, and abiding with your child. Here, you are not only keeping your child with you, but you are including your child in your day's activities. You are building an intimate relationship with your child, teaching him to be like you in mind, spirit, beliefs and actions. You are diligently teaching godliness on the most basic, practical level. This is a lifestyle.

It is our responsibility to tend our own gardens. To watch closely over our own children, for our calling as parents is to: 

Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your might. And these words that I command you today shall be on your heart.  You shall teach them diligently to your children, and shall talk of them when you sit in your house, and when you walk by the way, and when you lie down, and when you rise. You shall bind them as a sign on your hand, and they shall be as frontlets between your eyes.  You shall write them on the doorposts of your house and on your gates. ~ Deut. 6:4-9

So while our vegetable garden is a mess this fall, I am praying for God's grace to faithfully stake my precious girls close to my side to tend to the soil of their hearts.  They are precious seedlings who need constant care.  And by the grace of God, they will grow to be women who bear much, much fruit.

Fruit of Last Years Harvest