Robert Kumza with his final fall tomato
harvest on Jan. 10, 2026
Robert Kumza
I’ll bet you thought I was going to say, “… with Doublemint, Doublemint, Doublemint gum.” Well, in SaddleBrooke, the saying goes, “Double your pleasure, double your fun by joining the SaddleBrooke Gardening Club.”
Based on national statistics, 55% of American households participate in some form of gardening on a regular basis, and 78% of these grow food to eat. American home food gardening habits have increased significantly over the past six years, driven by the pandemic and concerns about food prices and availability. Key trends include a focus on vegetables, particularly tomatoes, peppers, cucumbers, and lettuce.
While many of us have experienced the joy, fulfillment, pleasures, and challenges of gardening in Arizona, most have yet to experience the satisfaction that comes with having friends to share our gardening experiences through the SaddleBrooke Gardening Club. Those shared experiences can “Double Your Fun” in so many ways. I’ll give you a personal example:
Tomatoes are the most popular fruit to grow, with 86% of American home gardeners growing them! Last year, a gardening friend and fellow member of the SaddleBrooke Gardening Club gave me a few Bella Rosa tomato seeds. He said the seeds were about seven years old, and he didn’t know if they would germinate. He also told me that in all his many years of gardening in SaddleBrooke, the Bella Rosa was the best large slicing tomato he ever grew here. I decided to give the seeds a try and planted a few in my indoor seed starting system. The seeds did germinate. I kept one Bella Rosa tomato plant for myself and gave the other back to the person who originally gave me the seed, Ken Padgham.
Fast forward to Fall 2025. The Bella Rosa has proved its worth by producing a beautiful crop of luscious tomatoes this year. Now, these tomatoes aren’t like the hothouse ones you get in the grocery store. No, these are the ones that smell and taste like the real thing—the ones that you bite into, the juice drips down your chin, and the sweetness lingers on your tastebuds.
Well, I told Ken about my success, and he said that his Bella Rosa also produced a wonderful harvest this year. His seed-sharing brought me a joyful experience I would never have had without his thoughtfulness, and the joy of sharing this experience at our latest Garden Club meeting brought excitement to the other members who participated.
At the heart of our club, we are essentially a social organization—a social organization founded on the development of friendships sharing our common love of gardening. If you’re not currently a member of the SaddleBrooke Gardening Club, we invite you to join the other SaddleBrooke residents in the club and share your joys and challenges of gardening in Arizona.
For more information about the SaddleBrooke Gardening Club, go to www.SBGardeningClub.weebly.com.