Me? Green Thumb?

New garden contains tomatoes, strawberries, zucchinis, and green onions.

Let me start off by saying that I never had any success at growing things.  Even hard to kill houseplants died in my care.  There was a point in time where I bought lots of plants hoping to bring cleaner air to the house.  But one by one they died off because I just don't take good care of them.  Of course, orchids are not my forte.  I even killed cactuses.  Because of that, I don't try to grow anything. 

But my kids, especially #2, J boy, love watching things grow.  He loves fresh fruits and vegetables too.  So he especially loves to pick them and eating them right away.  He kept asking me when we can grow more tomatoes.  Last year when my father-in-law visited, he made me a raised bed garden box equipped with a watering system.  And since Castro Valley Sanitary District have been giving out compost, I have no excuse, but to try and plant something.  So this past Spring (in April), I bought a few tomatoes plants.  Then I tried sprouted from seeds zucchini and more tomatoes.  Within a week, I saw tiny green shoots sprouting up.  WOW! Amazing.  Within a few more weeks, those young shoots where repotted to the garden outside.  Just when I wanted to repot outside, Home Depot had potting soil on sale, 5 large bags for $10.  So I filled the garden box with 7 bags of potting soil and four large bags of compost.  Composts are like super steroid for plants.  It makes them grow BIG and TALL.  Seeing how fast things grow makes me want to take better care of it.  I made sure that the soil is always moist, especially on hot days. 

I am just not sure if I have the right mix of nutrient in the soil since I haven't done it before.  But my tomato and zucchini plants are growing like weeds.  It's bigger than any tomatoes plants I've ever seen.  I did try to grow tomatoes once before and that plant were only waist high and there were tons of fruits thanks to Hebron's coworker.  However, this time the plants are taller than J and still not bearing any fruit.  I was disappointed.  In the mean time, my neighbor and friends are harvesting large and juicy zucchini and tomatoes.  After asking around, I've determined that my plants are late bloomers because I started kind of late and it's over crowded in the garden.  So I continued to water it.  By the end of June, I saw three tiny zucchinis and about 5 little green tomatoes.  WOW!!!!! I was soooo excited.  I can't believe that it's bearing fruit.  It reminded me about the verse in Matthew 7:16-19  which says, "¹⁶ By their fruit you will recognize them. Do people pick grapes from thornbushes, or figs from thistles? ¹⁷ Likewise, every good tree bears good fruit, but a bad tree bears bad fruit. ¹⁸ A good tree cannot bear bad fruit, and a bad tree cannot bear good fruit. ¹⁹ Every tree that does not bear good fruit is cut down and thrown into the fire. ²⁰ Thus, by their fruit you will recognize them."  I planted those plants because I wanted the fruits.  If my plants bears no fruits, then I don't want them because they are of no used to me.  **Ding** A light bulb went on.  I, as a Christian should be bearing fruits so people can see what kind of plant I am.  If I bear no fruit, I am of no use to the Kingdom.  Oh man, what a convicting lesson I learned from just watching my plants grow.  Father, how can I live in such a way that bear fruits and bring glory to you?

The tomato plants are now taller than me and it has tons of tiny tomatoes.  Look, there is a zucchini ready for harvest and five more growing. 

Compost and soil make all the difference.  By July 4th, my plants are taller than me.  I love cooking with fresh fruits and vegetables.  I love knowing that my food are safe to eat and it's free from chemicals and pesticides.  This new found love for gardening leads me to want to growing things year round, which means I need more compost to condition my soil.  So I looked into composting.  I didn't want to compost before because I though you had to use worm and I don't like worms.  But I found out that you don't need worm to compost.  So I am now going to try composting my kitchen scraps.  I got this huge used bin from the thrift store for $3.50.  H drills holes all around it to give it air so I can use it for composting.  I will let you know how it goes later.

Homemade compost bin.