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

a clothesline, a gate and a few weeds...

With the tease of almost 70 degree weather yesterday and daffodils in bloom, we ventured into the backyard to drink up the sunshine and fresh air and explore our old friend, the backyard.

We first extended our clotheslines to hang out a few rugs from inside and memories of last summer's four month excursion without a dryer came flooding back. I was quickly reminded of the lessons that my clotheslines taught me last summer: to slow down, simplify, meditate, pray and be grateful for the conveniences we have in such abundance. My heart jumped just a bit with the anticipation of "lazy" summer afternoons hanging miniature rags and diapers out on my trusty lines, thinking and praying, at peace in my backyard with my Savior.

We then walked around the yard, pruning back the many plants that still appear dead and dry from the dormant winter. It struck me how so many of our plants look like they haven't survived, but need time, the warm sunshine, spring rains and a bit of tender care to thrive in the months to come. I began to wonder what areas of my own heart are dormant in this season, and if to my Maker and those around me, they appear dead, without new life.

After the pruning, I could clearly see the weeds that regardless of the cold or lack of rain, so easily, abundantly spring up in the abandoned beds. So anxious to plant seeds, Addy ran up to me begging to begin planting. I stopped, knelt down and showed her the many weeds that would choke out our little seeds if we didn't take the time to rid our bed of weeds that had taken root. Many of the weeds were small and easily pulled. But, one in particular, I recognized from last fall, one I had left to deal with this spring, one that I just couldn't be bothered with when I should have. To pull that one weed took all my strength, leverage and few strong tools. I almost surrendered entirely to wait for Joel's strength and assistance. And in that pulling, the weight on my own heart became more pressing as I heard a still, peaceful voice beckoning me to look at the garden of my own heart and ask "where have weeds taken root, where must I be pruned, and how does this soil need to be prepared to produce fruit?" It took all night, but I finally had the courage to utter the question to my dear husband, who the Lord uses so much to tend my heart. Do I really want to know where he sees weeds?

After clearing out the bed for our spring peas, Addy and I ventured over to the "big" garden's gate and just stood, staring at the massive plot of composting remnants from last season, stacked wire cages and dry leaves. With a deep sigh knowing the work that it will take to prepare the soil for this year's garden, I smiled as she exclaimed "Mama, are the tomatoes ready yet?"

Not yet dear one, there is much work to be done. But we can have such confidence in this: "I planted, Apollos watered, but God gave the growth. So neither he who plants nor he who waters is anything, but only God who gives the growth...And I am sure of this, that he who began a good work in you will bring it to completion at the day of Jesus Christ."

So ultimately, what takes root, what grows and what produces fruit is up to the Great Gardener, but we will faithfully tend the soil, root out the weeds that can choke out life, rejoice in the sun, rain and fertilizer that He faithfully sends, and look forward, with great anticipation to the harvest that He alone is faithful to produce.

Grab your clothespins and your gardening gloves, there is His faithfulness to meditate on and weeds to be pulled.

And just in case you think it might be too much work, or not worth the effort and the pain that can ensue from pruning and weeding, we can look back, remember His faithfulness, and the fruit of last year's work.

Harvest (aka the reason none of you are hearing from us)

We are up to our ears in (or in expectation of) raspberries, elderberries, peaches, plums, apples, tomatoes, green beans, squash, eggplant, beets, brussel sprouts, peppers, cucumbers, parsnips. carrots, onions, dishes, and jars. It is a sweet season but one that I am eagerly anticipating the end of come October.

I do have a new favorite canning book with delicious recipes for things like peach salsa and chocolate raspberry dessert syrup. It is a wealth of "modern" recipes for traditional preserving methods.

And because I just can't get enough of Addy's precious "isms," I have one to hold you over until after harvest:

The other evening I made a salsa chicken dish that had black beans in it. Addy looked at it and in an intense and hushed voice exclaimed, "Oh mama, you put chocolate in my dinner. That is so kind of you."

Yes, she is my daughter. And any chocolate received is considered a random act of kindness.

Sustained

Please don't get used to two posts in close proximity to one another. I just so happened to have two moments in the same day to reflect...

At about 3pm this afternoon a funny exchange happened between my dear husband and I. Being the failure I am at meal planning (which I hope to reform) I called to ask the all important question "What would you like for dinner?"

He simply replied, "Vegetables." And we both chuckled.

I mumbled something back about how great it is to eat what we have and my, aren't we self-sustaining. And we chuckled some more.

Now you might not think this is funny but you might not know that Joel is an avid broccoli eater, an occasional green bean or carrot eater and beyond that does not "prefer" most vegetables. But, in our quest to be "self-sustaining" he has agreed to eat any and all vegetables put before him that were birthed in our garden...and boy, are there vegetables. We attempted a gardening method from the book Solar Gardening: Growing Vegetables Year-Round the American Intensive Way and have 400 square feet of garden with apparently little-to-no walking space. Yes, vegetables coming out our ears.

All of that though is just background for a myriad of thoughts that raced through my head (and heart) after we hung up the phone. We do what can by researching things like wood-burning stoves and solar cookers, while trying to grow and preserve as much as we can but in reality, being more "self-sustaining" really just brings me to my knees in the awareness of how God-sustained we are... the trends of urban sustainability and buying local should humble us in awareness that without the God of the harvest, who speaks forth the rain and sun, we could not "sustain" anything for long.

Jehovah Jireh, you sustain us.

But if God so clothes the grass of the field, which today is alive and tomorrow is thrown into the oven, will he not much more clothe you, O you of little faith? Therefore do not be anxious, saying, ‘What shall we eat?’ or ‘What shall we drink?’ or ‘What shall we wear?’ For the Gentiles seek after all these things, and your heavenly Father knows that you need them all. But seek first the kingdom of God and his righteousness, and all these things will be added to you. Matthew 6:30-33

So yes dear, tomorrow we'll have eggplant again for the glory of God.