As long as I can remember, my Pappy Wise had a large garden in the back of his house in Sunbury. Coming through the depression and the scarcity of food during World War II, and with a large family, this was a necessity for them. And Mammy Wise spent many hours canning vegetables.
My parents also had gardens whenever they were able to. In New Cumberland one of my dad's coaching friends let them use a plot of ground on his property. But, as I recall, it was many blocks from our house and I don't know how dad cared for it since we didn't have a car in those days. When we moved to Lancaster and dad worked for RCA, he had a plot of ground there where they had a garden. I can recall often going there to help take care if it.
After our move to Lititz, dad spent several years cleaning out the many stones in the back of our property and preparing the soil for a garden. He eventually had a very nice garden there and mother also canned and later froze many vegetables. When we bought our house in Millersville we had loads of room to garden and mother and dad would plant another garden there, especially for corn.
Our first home in Silver Springs had a place for a small garden and we began our gardening experiences there. When we then moved to Millersville we had a much smaller area but we did grow a few things such as tomatoes. Then we moved to our present location which included loads of room to "farm" and when we were younger we did have a very large garden. We tried to grow almost everything and it was fun, but almost too much work for us. And while the boys helped us weed, they really didn't enjoy it.
So over the years our garden decreased in size and eventually about all we planted were things like lettuce, spring onions, beets, carrots, beans, and tomato plants. I love fresh tomatoes, especially on sandwiches with onions, lettuce and sometimes cheese. Then the land behind us was sold and developed with homes. Our garden area disappeared. But I didn't give up. I found a spot in the backyard which I could dig up and plant 6 to 8 tomato plants each year. But the ground wasn't good and there wasn't much sun and our crops were generally very small.
This year I realized that I could no longer physically dig up that area once again so I considered finally giving up completely. But I really wanted to still have some tomato plants. Then I saw an advertisement for boxes that you could purchase which would keep your plants watered and fertilized with just a little bit of effort on the grower's part. No digging required. That seemed almost too good to be true, so I fell for it.
First I had to buy the boxes - three of them. Then I found out that I needed to buy potting soil - the regular dirt which I had would not work. Then I had to buy the tomato plants. I actually bought four. While doing the planting and prep work I tore and ruined a new pair of pants which I stupidly was wearing for the first time. They were ruined before I even paid for them. Then as the plants grew I found out that my wire containers wouldn't be sufficient so I had to purchase equipment to stake up the plants. My first tomato showed blossom rot so I had to purchase some sprays for that.
Now I don't know how many tomatoes I will finally get, but my estimate is that each one could cost me about $4.00 or more! Suddenly I find myself asking how many tomatoes could I buy at one of the local stands for $4.00. And I know the answer is many more than one. So if you'd like to try a real expensive "golden" red tomato, stop by sometime later in the summer and help us enjoy the expensive results of my modern gardening experience. Hopefully I will at least have some to eat and share.
This approach to raising some tomatoes really does not now appear to be a great investment. But hopefully it does give me another interesting memory and something more to blog about. Notice I didn't say "brag" about, I said "blog" about!
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