Reflections From the Garden: Toma'to and Topa'to

This year has been a new experience for me; Juliann and I have started a garden. Well, two gardens actually: one that consists of two large pots from Walmart with strawberries (left over from my aphid experiment), a jalapeno plant, a serrano pepper plant, and two tomato plants which we call our patio garden, and another that we planted at one of the houses that SUU owns which for convenience I will refer to as el jardin magnifico. In el jardin magnifico we, along with three other people from the SUU Grounds, have planted pumpkins, cucumber, zucchini, lemon squash, butternut squash,  cantaloupe, corn, green beans, carrots, beets, radishes, onions, tomatoes, and a wide array of peppers. So far I have really enjoyed the gardening experience. There is a sort of thrill that comes with watching the plants grow.

As a part of this new experience, I have decided to post about thoughts that come to me while thinking about our gardens. These posts will be titled Reflections From the Garden.

When we began our patio garden, we chose one of our tomato plants because it already had a fairly large tomato growing on it. As we have been nurturing our little tomato buddy, it hasn't been growing very tall  or adding many more leaves. Instead, it has been focusing all of its effort on growing that tomato. That tomato will be used as its means of reproduction. By a loose comparison, that tomato could be considered its offspring or child. Some scientists would say that it is focusing on that means of reproduction in order to pass on its genes into the next generation. For me, however, it was a reminder of my parents. That little tomato plant was devoting nearly all of its energy into providing for its child. Rather than trying to grow and increase its chance of survival, it was trying to increase the chance that its offspring would be successful. Thinking of the devotion that this plant had toward its offspring brought me feelings of gratitude for my amazing Mom and Dad. They always put the needs and wants of my siblings and me above their own. They did a wonderful job nurturing us to be successful. They were our Toma'to and Topa'to. Thank you Mom and Dad. I LOVE YOU!