Field notes · 2026-09-23

What the tomatoes taught me

I planted the tomatoes too close together. I knew the spacing on the little plastic tag and I ignored it, because the seedlings looked so small and the bed looked so big. Two months later it is a jungle in there and I am the villain of my own garden.

So this morning I thinned them. It felt ruthless, pulling up healthy plants I had raised from seed. But by afternoon the remaining ones already looked relieved, like they could finally stretch.

There is probably a lesson here about giving things \u2014 projects, people, yourself \u2014 the room the tag says they need, even when everything looks small at the start. The garden keeps teaching the same class. I keep needing the refresher.