From Seed to Garden to Plate – Tom Finneran

Friday, August 14, 2020

Tom Finneran, GoLocalWorcester MINDSETTER™

Tom Finneran is the former Speaker of the House in MA

The catalogues arrive in the dead of winter. It’s quite cold, it’s very dark, and there’s usually another storm bearing down on us. It’s then that I immediately decide to forego cleaning the basement and I curl up on the sofa with the gardeners’ version of the Bible.

The catalogues bring hope. They bring excitement. They bring the promise of Spring, of better and brighter days. For gardeners, the arrival of the catalogues is their Opening Day, filled with the promise of a new and exciting season.

News reports indicate that our COVID-constricted lifestyles have sparked a heightened interest in home gardening. Those reports certainly proved true in our house. For years I was the sole scanner of the catalogues, contemplating the pictures and devouring the descriptions of each variety. Not so this season when my wife Donna took over, setting up much-improved grow lights and handling the job of moving seedlings to full transplants. Her efforts were immensely helpful, and the proof of her work is seen in this year’s garden bounty. We are eating well!

Tomato seeds

The catalogues reveal that there are hundreds of varieties of tomatoes, some early season, some mid-to-late season. Some are “heirloom” tomatoes, others are hybrids. Some are cherry-sized while others are multi-pound monsters. A gardener can indulge many preferences.

The yields on past seasons have included lettuce, sweet peppers, basil, stringbeans, and tomatoes. If this year’s heat waves ever break, I hope to plant both turnip and cauliflower for a fall harvest.

Speaking of the heat, even the most intrepid gardeners do not relish the heavy work of planting shrubs and trees in these conditions. First, the plants themselves are stressed by the heat. Secondly, the digging, filling, and watering of planting holes is heavy, often backbreaking work. Beyond the vegetable patch, we have pretty much decided on all perennials, thus planting only once rather than every single year.

Tomato plant

Just like serious farmers, gardeners learn to watch the weather. This year we are all praying for rain, not to ruin anyone’s vacation, but simply to let the fruits and flowers have a decent drink. This past Tuesday’s heat in Boston was ridiculously oppressive. Sitting stock still at 9:00 AM yielded a sweat-soaked tee-shirt in less than five minutes.

One well-established trick of gardeners is the use of a drip irrigation system. Not only does it conserve precious water, it also enhances the yields of all plants. Anyone who has ever traveled to Israel knows that even in the very high heat of summer, the fields are full of vibrant healthy crops. Truly, the desert blooms, through the miracle of drip irrigation.

A final thought---as the world heaves with violence and the news remains utterly depressing, pay heed to the words of Lukas Nelson in his song “Turn Off the News (Build a Garden)”: