The Best Part of Summer

I was sitting on the patio last night, on the phone to a friend, and I noticed the most wonderful thing! Over in the corner, under the shade of the green leaves, was a beautiful RED tomato! Red, as in ripe and ready to pick! Red as the 4th of July! I couldn't hold my excitement - I interrupted whatever conversation we were having, and did a great "Whoo Hoo"! For me, this is the best part of summer - the taste of a really great tomato, one that hasn't been picked while still green and hard, and left to ripen on the truck from a thousand miles away. It also is a symbol of my effort, while fairly small (after all, the plant was started by someone else - all I did was place it, water it, and wait) but rewarding.

My family jokes that I am the only one who shares my father's love of gardening. My thumb was green from the start. I remember in our backyard, the HUGE vegetable garden, with rows of corn, beans, tomatoes, peppers, squash, peas, zucchini, and who knows what else. Dad liked to experiment, and since he had the space it was easy to put in a few seeds and see what grew. Harvesting the corn was the most fun - Dad would tell mom to get the water boiling, and he would get to picking. My job was to husk it was fast as I could, getting it to the pot before the corn's milk dried up. Some nights, that was all we had for dinner!

Dad would come home after work, and head right out to the garden. There, he could see his progress in real, living things, and notice the barely taller plants. He would put his hands in the earth, pull a weed here and there, and generally relax. I know just how he felt. The dirt, plants, smells, colors, all create a special calmness for me. They don't require conversation, and your mind can wander as you tend to each plant. Ah, peaceful! One of my favorite things is the watering. I love the sound of the water through the sprinkler, the smell of wet dirt, the coolness, and of course, I have to get my feet wet!

I only have a small area to plant - 25 ft by 18 inches, and this year I put in zucchini, summer squash, cucumbers, and a watermelon. The tomatoes are in barrels in the sunniest part of the yard, and do so well, it's almost no work at all. But the results are terrific!