Harvesting a labor of love

Posted in Mom Stuff
by Melissa Linebrink

“OK Melis, when I dig a hole, you give me a tomato plant to put in it,” my dad said to me when I was around 5 years old.

I looked at him and either said “OK” or simply nodded.

And after planting several tomato plants, my dad looked down his row to see the progress of his hard labor.

He saw only one tomato plant planted – the one he just put in the hole.

You see, for who knows how many holes, I just kept giving my dad the same tomato plant he just planted. He dug the hole, I pulled up the tomato plant and gave it right back to him to replant, over and over.

My dad, ever so patient, didn’t yell or anything … he just replanted – again.

And up until this year, my dad has been the “green thumb” of the family.

What made this year different?

In the month of May, my dad got a very bad case of flu that sent this now 57-year-old man to the doctor.

So this year, my dad turned over his “green thumb baton” to me, and so far, no plants have died in my care. In fact, if I may say so myself, the garden is thriving (minus the lettuce which refuses to sprout.)

For three and half hours, I worked in my garden. I made mounds, I made holes, and I planted tomatoes, peppers of all kinds, lettuce, beans, scallions, cucumbers and cabbage.

Then, just like a good daughter, I took many photos and sent them to my dad to show him that even though I was very young when we used to garden together, I paid attention to the details. Plus, it seems as though I have inherited the green thumb gene – I even started to use the riding lawn mower to cut half of our 2.5 acres of land (of course, I cut the back acre that no one really sees!).