Caleb Harris, Austin American-Statesman
| Hearst – Austin Transition
I know you’ve been waiting with bated breath all summer and now the time has come. It’s time for a garden update.
As you may recall, the five older boys all staked a plot in our small backyard garden and back in March I wrote a column committing to letting them oversee their own plots. I’m happy to report I have truly lived up to that commitment. My involvement has solely consisted of occasional reminders to water and applying fertilizer every so often. I’m just as surprised as you are.
The boys demonstrated certain personalities and tendencies as they prepped their gardens so let’s see if those pre-planting personalities held true. Also, did anything grow?
Three weeks after planting their seeds the boys told me, that with the exception of the basil, nothing sprouted. They were sure I had provided them with bad seeds and lamented the failure of their entire crop.
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I remarked that I guess gardening wasn’t as easy as they thought but since they were still wanting to grow something I’d take them to a nursery to get some vegetable plants that had been started. I figured even if we had to write off growing from seed as a failure, they could still make a go at growing something.
When we returned home to plant, I examined their plots. I discovered two things. With one exception they had not been weeding at all, and in amongst the weeds they had many vegetable plants growing. Not all of them were where they had been planted (seeds are small and boys are sloppy) but virtually everything that had been planted had indeed sprouted.
The 12-year-old likely pulled out his sprouts as part of his scorched-earth approach to weeding. Apparently you can be overzealous even in your weeding.
The boys proceeded to mark off the shoots and sprouts and also to plant the vegetables we got from the store. Then the hardest part began again: the waiting.
The wait is now over and the garden has produced in each plot. With a varying level of success, each boy can claim to have grown at least one producing plant.
The 13-year-old: His plan was to grow something requiring as minimal effort as possible. He planted basil but quickly improved upon his plan of growing the least effort-oriented plant by transferring his basil plants to pots. He foresaw even less weeding this way and better control over watering. He was right. His results have been unquestionably successful. He ended up planting additional basil seeds in pots and we’ve enjoyed several meals with fresh pesto harvested from his plants. There will be dozens more if his current crop is any indication.
The 12-year-old gets the award for most diligent gardener. He’s the only boy who kept up with weeding his garden and his plot is exceptionally tidy (the first time anything related to him has received this description). His jalapenos are turning out great (and spicy!) and his bell pepper plant looks very healthy even if it hasn’t been particularly productive.
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The 10-year-old benefited from having the plot adjacent to the 12-year-old’s so his border is weeded, or maybe the 12-year-old suffers the encroachment of weeds having a plot next to the 10-year-old?.
The 10-year-old’s tomatoes are fantastic and with a potential tariff coming on tomatoes from Mexico, he may even have a market for his produce. If we weren’t eating all of them on sight, that is.
The 9-year-old planted watermelon (despite attempted discouragement) and cucumber. He has dealt with insect and pest issues in his plot more than anyone, which is ironic because he loves bugs, but the cucumber plant is growing like crazy. His plot is so weedy he didn’t realize he had cucumber growing until a full-size cucumber was discovered in his plot.
The 7-year-old planted cherry tomatoes and unquestionably enjoys tomatoes three times more than anyone else. He got a couple errant basil plants going in his plot, too, and he’s kept them going (amongst the weeds). His tomato plants produced a handful of nice tomatoes and then I think the unexpected July rains messed them up. Unexpected weather is part of gardening though, so no excuses. There were enough tomatoes and more than enough basil ready by his birthday that I was able to make him one of his favorite treats: bruschetta. The fresh tomatoes and basil on the pan-toasted bread was fantastic. There really is something special about eating food fresh out of your own garden.
All-in-all the garden has been a success. I think the boys have learned lessons about tending (and not over- or under-tending) a garden and I’ve learned a bit about letting them make their own mistakes. With the exception of the basil our harvest has certainly not been anything impressive (yet) but it sure has been special.
Harris and his wife live in Pflugerville with their seven children. Please email comments or suggestions for future columns to thoughtsforcaleb@gmail.com.