Watch it Grow

I will start out by saying, not everyone has green thumb, nor the desire to even attempt to grow any type of plant, let alone a vegetable. Working a garden definitely takes time, patience and work. How many have I lost just in the first couple of sentences? Keep reading, you just might enjoy learning about starting seedlings.

Anyone in town that knew my father knew he was not a master gardener, but THE master gardener, at least in my eyes.

In this photo dad is holding a tomato named pineapple, if i remember correctly it was right at two pounds. From dad I choose to do a lot of heirloom seeds, but that’s a choice you can make.

His preference was tomato plants, seeds from all over the world. He found a friend online that sent him tomato seeds from Ukraine. At one point he had over 200 tomato varieties planted. He was known for his salsa. I know his secret to his salsa, no, I’m not giving it up, but the tomatoes he uses, that’s a big part of it. Homegrown will always make the difference.

Are you wondering what this has to do with life after a heart attack or my life after a heart attack? It’s peaceful, you may not believe it, but even if you start one plant in a pot on a deck, you may just understand.

I’m prepping not only for my own garden, but I do our church garden as well.

I will be starting tomato, peppers, herbs and some cut flowers indoors. Dad taught me to do multiple seeding per pod to get more product out of your space. Meaning around 6-10 seeds per pod. I do not do that many anymore, but I do a few still. By the time the seedlings are grown enough to separate I’m able to move them to individual cups and move outside to acclimate to the temperatures. You will see in this next picture I number each seed pod and write in notepad which plants are in each pod, in previous photo you will see I number and take notes.

If you don’t have the room for a garden, just get a pot and plant your own tomato plant or pepper plant, something you like you eat.

If you’re starting from seed you need to start with a light potting mix. Place your seed in each pod/pot cover with dirt. Plant seed usually around 1/8-1/4 inch under soil. Once you have all of your seeds planted, make sure they are watered, I suggest a tray to hold water under your pods. Cover with Saran Wrap, trust me on this. If you do not have a heat mat, I know, you can google or look up on Pinterest how to make one, set in a warm sunny area or use a grow light.

Sealing the top of your pod trays will hold your heat and moisture in to germinate the seeds. This will also, normally give you a faster growth in seedlings.

Yes, I understand that the time I invest in gardening I can go to the store, but I prefer to know where my produce comes from as much as possible. Now, if you have a farmer’s market, absolutely go and make friends to find a great farmer that grows produce with less chemicals then store bought. You will find the taste of mass production produce over local homegrown will not have the flavors of local. There are a few different reasons, but one is that mass production produce is being grown in over processed fields that have lost nutrients that our bodies need, hence why we need more vitamins and supplements to get what our bodies naturally were to receive from our foods.

I’m not telling everyone to start farming, but for myself I need as natural as I can get to get my body healthy. I chose to do what I needed to do to get off of medications, the past 8 months have been a whirlwind with drs and medications, but not once have my doctors told me I would have to stay on them the rest of my life. Yes, there is a possibility I will not be able to get off of one, but it doesn’t mean I can’t try.

Taking the time to nurture even a single plant to fruit will give you a sense of accomplishment. I do know our congregation loves getting fresh produce, my family enjoys seeing the smiles on faces of older generations that are use to fresh garden vegetable. Many in our church had their own garden, some now have moved into town or smaller accommodations, some are just unable to work a garden anymore.

Giving makes your heart happy, is there any other way to go through life but happy?

What is your favorite vegetable from the garden?