Good morning, come on in and have a coffee with me. Actually, let’s go out to the backyard. It’s hot outside – 78-degree-Fahrenheit (about 26-degree-Celsius). It’s actually the last warm day for the week. It’s supposed to drop back down to the 60’s tomorrow.

If we were having coffee, I bet you’ll ask me about the two large bags under my eyes. It’s been a sleepless week for me. You can call me the concerned parent of two tomato plants.

I brought my two tomato plants outdoors this week, hoping to let it get used to the outdoors. It hasn’t been doing well inside. The leaves have been getting yellow by the day.

The last time I brought it outside was the day they were transplanted into a bigger smart pot. After successfully transplanting one myself, mom stalked out and called me clumsy and slow. Then she took reigns and refused to let me transplant the second plant. “Transplanting a plant is like performing a surgery.” I told her but she waved me off.

She must had man-handled the second plant and damaged its roots because it was never the same after that. She told me to leave them outside to absorb the sunlight. I didn’t know it at the time that seedlings must be hardened off before taking outside.

The one I transplanted was in terrible shape after a few hours in the sun but thankfully, it was revived within a few hours with shade and water. The one she transplanted never fully bounced back and though it has grown during the last few weeks, it’s still not as strong as the one I transplanted.

So I’m concerned, spending my nights watching every video, trying to learn more about raising tomatoes and developing a green thumb.

Through watching gardening videos on YouTube, I discovered it is now recommended to plant in smart pots or grow bags. Apparently, these bags help aerate the roots. Immediately, I ordered different sizes – 1 gallon, 3 gallons, and 5 gallons – smart pots and yesterday, I managed to sneak 40 bags into my room.

Talk about being sneaky.

Mom would give me the lecture of how I am wasting my money on useless things even though these things last a long time.

Oh and let’s not mention the elephant in the room – the 72 rolls of toilet paper in my garage. Mom’s hoarding toilet paper. “Convert all your money into essential items.” She had said.

On Tuesday, the grow lights for my plants were delivered. Unfortunately, mom was the one to accept the order. Immediately, she tore into the wrapping, not bothering to look at the name on the package.

“Hey,” I said, snatching the package from her hands.

“What is it?” She asked.

“My stuff.” I snapped. I was not interested in hearing one of her, “what a waste of money” speech.

Wednesday, after work, I went shopping at Walmart, buying another bag of soil and 50 peat pallets. I want to try growing vegetables from seeds. I don’t know what mom think of it yet but I have started growing a variety of lettuces, spinach, and peppers in these tiny expandable peat pallets and then put them under grow lights for 8 hours at night to help with germination.

I hope it’ll save me some salad money this summer.

If we were having coffee, I would thank you for joining me in this edition of #weekendcoffeeshare and hope we’ll both return next week.