How Cherry tomatoes got me in to gardening

It was some time in the start of December 2017. The wife and daughter were out and I was at home looking at the walls and thinking of something to do to fill up my free time. All the thinking was making me hungry, so I decided to make my way to the fridge and have a snack, as you do. As I was browsing around in the fridge I came across a small container of cherry tomatoes my wife had brought a few days earlier. I Opened the container and had one cherry tomato and then another and then another and then I had a thought. I wanted to grow my own cherry tomatoes from store brought cherry tomatoes. I didn’t know much about growing plants other than that they needed water and light. Using my free time I started doing some research on how to grow tomatoes from seed. After spending a couple of hours on the internet learning about growing plants from seeds i knew the first step I had to do was to get the seeds and get them to germinate. So my journey started.
I placed one cherry tomato in a sifter and squeezed it between my fingers to pop out all the seeds. I then placed the seeds on to a paper towel which I placed in the garage and allowed the seeds to dry for 2 days. After allowing the seeds to dry I placed the seeds on a new paper towel which I moistened and inserted in to a ziplock bag. Two weeks had past and not much had changed with the seeds. I was starting to loose hope. On the third week it started to get interesting. I noticed the seeds had germinated and small little roots about four to five millimetre in length had emerged. I raced to my wife to show her the progress, she was in the middle of doing her make up as I barged in to our room. She looked at me, then at my sprouted seeds, smiled said good job and turned around to continue her make up. She wasn’t too fascinated I guess but It didn’t bother me, because I was.
Now was the time to plant the germinated seeds in to soil. Back when I was in high school, which was a long time ago, I remembered a project where our science teacher got the students to make a green house out of soft drink bottles. Our task was to cut a 2 litter bottle in half, make some drain holes in the bottom half, fill the bottom half with soil, place a bean in the soil and rejoin the top half to the bottom half with some tape to hold them together and bobs your uncle. In a few weeks we would have a bean stalk growing in the bottles, so I thought. Anyway long story short that’s the method I adopted to plant my germinated seeds, in a soft-drink bottle filled with potting mix placed next to the window.
Few days later the seeds had pushed through the soil. I was very excited to see this. Every day I would check up on them making sure the soil was moist and that they were getting enough light. I would at times just sit there and stare at them like some creep, admiring them. Each day they were getting taller. After about 3 days they had opened there first two leaves. I had a smile across my face from one ear to the other. “You weren’t even that happy when we had our daughter”, my wife muttered under her breath.
Day by day the little sprouts grew. Eventually the time had come for me to transplant them out side. I was worried, what if they withered away, maybe it was too hot for them outside or what if the wind was too strong and snapped their delicate stems. But I knew I couldn’t keep them inside for ever. After finding a good spot for them outside I prepared the soil in which they would be planted by first removing any unwanted weeds and then sprinkled a hand full of slow release fertiliser in to the soil. I then dug small shallow holes for each cherry tomato plant and planted each one into a hole. Every day after work since planting them outside the first thing I would do was go straight to my back yard and check up on the cherry tomato plants. I would make sure the soil was moist and would also just check on the visual condition of the plants just to make sure they were doing fine.
One week later they had grown more than two inches. I was not as worried anymore because I knew they had settled in to there new location just fine and was evident by the appearance of the plants. As the weeks went past the cherry tomato plants grew taller and taller, by week 4 they started to grow little cherry tomatoes. I was so proud. This (Gardening) was a big learning curve for me but I enjoyed every minute of it and still enjoy every minutes of it. I have since also planted strawberries, blueberries, chillies and also trying to grow my own lemon tree. This journey in growing my own cherry tomatoes has also educated me in life. It has taught me if you are passionate, patient and consistent in life you will reap fruitful rewards.