NEVER WATER THE TOMATOES

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Audio Version of Newsletter, 7.4.22.mp3?(4 Minutes, 38 seconds)

I believe that tending to a garden is perhaps the best metaphor there is for life...

The plants you choose need to be capable of thriving in all aspects of the environment you can create for them. This includes both the aspects of the environment that are within your control and the aspects that are not. Tropical fruit is not going to survive in New York, and temperate vegetables will run to seed and die in Florida. Some crops need a lot of water, some very little. Some like the soil to be acidic, some basic. The list goes on.

Last year I decided with my wife to renovate my house, and so my vegetable garden was left untended while we lived off site for the season and my home was inaccessible. This year with growing season looming I sought coaching from a local, regenerative farmer (yes, we have those on Long Island) to ensure that the soil was ideal to provide best, healthiest possible yield.

"Never water the tomatoes."

I had never heard this before, and in the past I had tomato plants that I watered regularly, they seemed to grow just fine.

"Why not water them?"

"We find that the deeper the tomato roots go, the denser the Tomatoes seem to pack their nutrients, the sweeter they are, and the more durable they are. If the soil gets really dry, the leaves will start to curl a bit and you may be tempted to water them. Don't. Those are what we call 'the money days'. The roots shoot down as deep as they can to find water and then when it does rain, the plant absorbs it extremely well and everything comes to life."

I added this to my list of ways in which the garden emulates life.

I already had the following firmly in my head:

• Prepping the soil is creating the infrastructure that affords each relationship in my life with safety, and boundaries.
• Pulling the weeds is the recognition that some relationships are valuable, some have a negative value.
• Trimming dead and dying leaves is eliminating the urgent tasks that bog down the important ones.
• Removing viable fruit before it comes to maturity to allow the adjacent fruit to thrive more easily is creating deep focus.
• Watering intentionally in a measured way is leading different people in the ways they need and want to be led, which only comes from listening and paying attention.
• Planting with design to ensure that there is enough room for the root system of each eventual seedling to live adjacent to what was planted nearby is developing complimentary teams.
• Harvesting the edible product is celebrating the wins.
• Using the annuals and the "waste product" in the compost is legacy.
• Preserving the worms is partnership.

"Never water the tomatoes"?became the most profound metaphor for me as soon as I heard the farmer say it. It took me back to the story of "The man and the butterfly" which I linked for you below in an ugly, unprofessional way because I'm still trying to figure out this newsletter thing (Done is better than perfect, friends. Remember that.)

The man and the butterfly

The tomatoes thrive from adversity. While it may seem that they need your help, that they are struggling, and that they may not make it, the tomatoes are actually taking that adversity and adapting from it. They become more durable as a result of it. They become their best selves because of it. Without the adversity, the tomatoes are the ones you get in your salad and you pick them out because they don't have that deep red color, they look frail and flavorless. With it, they're the highlight of the dish.

The tomatoes are life experience. We need to go through it. We need to struggle. And we need to adapt. Remember, the tomato plant is not without help, in fact it is tethered to a wooden stake that measures one inch square around by seven feet tall that's jammed a foot deep into the soil. Without the stake, the plant would fall over and likely fail. The stake is the mentor.

We need support. We need guidance. We need to fail. We need to adapt.

Spend less time avoiding the pain and the struggle. Your time is better spent leaning into the kind of help that will force you to become a better version of you so that you thrive as a result of what you have become.

I hope you took as much value from my garden today as I did.

Until next week, #TurnPro