Lessons from my vegetable patch

This year, for fun, my daughter and I had a vegetable patch in the corner of our garden. We have grown tomatoes, pumpkins, carrots, lettuce, and one vegetable tbc (yes, I’m not quite sure what we’re growing yet!)


As the vegetable season comes to an end, I have been reflecting on the success of this year's project. And it has been a success. When we commenced on this venture, I did not expect any vegetables to grow. In fact, my garden has been full of life, and I have learnt lessons along the way to improve for next year. As I reflected, I realised that there were a lot of parallels with growing vegetables to friendships. If you indulge me, I will expand below:


Tomatoes:

Without doubt, they should have been crowned my greatest success. 5 out of the 8 tomato plants were grown from seed (I bought three when I had little hope of success earlier in the season). At the high-point, there were about 200 tomatoes growing; some tomatoes were as wide as 5 -6 cms in diameter. But then, almost overnight, the plants died. They caught some kind of fungus.


For me this represents a one facet of friendship - one that is flourishing, but relies heavily upon the environment in which it is growing. Suddenly something comes along (eg the friend moves away, changes jobs) and the friendship finds itself withering away.


Lettuces:

I had three successful lettuce plants that I grew from seed. I had no idea what I was doing, and I just let the plant grow through-out the summer. I never ate any of the leaves, but the lettuce did flower.


My lettuces were like a friendship that develops a life of it's own: it has quietly flourished in my garden for six months and I haven’t spent time nourishing it. But there is potential for further growth through the harvesting of the seeds and another patch of lettuces will grow in my garden next year.

Some friendship grow steadily and quietly. And when they flower, you suddenly realise how much you value them.


Carrots:

I was concerned when I was planting the carrot saplings that they were underdeveloped and had the potential to wither away. So I planted 10 saplings together. All the saplings flourished, but the result was that I had 10 carrots that were growing together in the same small space.


Sometimes you fall in with a group of friends. You develop relationships with all the members of the group - but don't realise the long-term impact of this. The end result is that whist you have a series of superficial relationships, and there isn’t one particular person that you’re close to, or least close enough to call upon in time of need.


Pumpkins:

Who knew how dramatic a pumpkin plant is? I had three plants that I grew from seed. They have large leaves, beautiful yellow flowers and take up most of the vegetable patch (and overflow into next door's garden). The pumpkins are only just beginning to grow.


Is this the flamboyant friend? Is it style over substance? Or will this friend come good by Halloween so that we can make pumpkin lanterns for my daughter, son and their friends?


Vegetable tbc:

I honestly don't know what I'm growing - I lost the label early on in this project. I believe that it's either leeks or courgettes. And it appears to be growing well.


This is the friendship that seems to take a back seat, yet the relationship develops at a steady pace. And it could result in a fantastic friendship - if only it could be defined.


I will try again next year with my vegetable garden and hope to harvest a greater number of veggies. I realise that the friendship types described above don’t cover the many different types of relationships we have in our lives…..I will need a bigger array of vegetables for that!

My main lesson from my vegetable patch? Don't leave friendships to chance.