By Allen Farley / Guest Columnist

Do you ever wake up in the morning and your first thoughts are about the things you suddenly remembered you failed to do? (You know the answer is yes).

That happened to me just a few days ago. Before I had even opened my eyes, I was having frantic thoughts concerning something I had failed to do in our new backyard garden.

All of a sudden, I realized I had not been removing the “suckers” from our six tomato plants. In just a few weeks, our little tomato plants were huge green bushes. (They looked like a group of politicians that had just left a free meal).

From Agardenforthehouse.com: “De-Suckering My Tomatoes”- Too much lushness promotes the shady, wet conditions that lead to fungal diseases. Furthermore, plants with too many stems produce small-size fruit. For healthy plants and large, high-quality tomatoes, those suckers ought to go.

Our big green tomato plants were deceiving. When you looked inside the leaves there was very little fruit. They reminded me of what you discover when you go into some of our government buildings expecting service. (They’re just like those big green bushy suckers that I allowed to take over our tomato plants). Some of our government employees receive a boat load of financial nutrients from our tax dollars, but we’re harvesting very little. (Who’s the gardener / overseer?)

Americans must wake up and start looking at the garden we are growing. We need to start looking under the leaves before the fungus and disease of corruption destroy the garden of freedom our ancestors planted.

Titus 1:7-8 For an overseer, as God’s steward, must be above reproach. He must not be arrogant or quick-tempered or a drunkard or violent or greedy for gain, but hospitable, a lover of good, self-controlled, upright, holy and disciplined.

God Bless America!!!

Representative Allen Farley represents District 15 in the Alabama House of Representatives. His email address is allenfarley@bellsouth.net.