A couple of weeks ago, I got a bee in my bonnet about possibly planting a garden. My grandfather used to have a good-sized vegetable garden on the back of their property. It got plowed under decades ago, but I remember snapping green beans and breaking the tops off carrots as a child; maybe I’m responding to the ghosts of vegetables past.
A neighboring metropark has free community garden plots available beginning next month. Originally I was all gung-ho about it and then reality set in. I’ve never planted a garden before. I can barely keep houseplants alive. I CAN’T keep houseplants alive. So I dialed back the master plan, instead deciding on a couple of tomato plants in a large container in the backyard. Maybe a pepper plant? Start small, accessible, manageable.
Then my grandmother got involved.
I suppose we’re both to blame – I added the extra peppers (I prefer red to green), onions and rosemary; she threw in the beets and lettuce. At this point, I decided to go the lazy gardener route.
Just add water! Voila!
Thank you Burpee Seed Starting Kit thingy! I don’t know if I’d go this route again, but I couldn’t seem to find any seed starter mix and this was the perfect solution. It came with dehydrated pellets of mystery seed starter mix. I just added a couple of tablespoons of water to each pellet and POOF! Soil!
After I added water to all of the pellets and smoothed out the mix, it was seeding time. This is about the time I reconsidered the whole larger-garden-plot notion. Putting single, teeny, tiny seeds into the seeding tray was bad enough; I can’t imagine doing the same thing in a larger garden plot. Not with my back issues.
All my little soldiers in a row! All told, I planted three each of the basil and rosemary, six onions and a dozen each of everything else. Allegedly, I should start to see seedlings sprouting in as soon as a week, so maybe Saturday will become gardening update day. With any luck, I’ll have something to report next week. Of course, after BEGGING my grandmother to write out the labels (her handwriting is MUCH neater than mine), I realized just how shallow the lid for the container was.
Yeah, so the tags will have to wait until the seedlings get transplanted into their new homes. I have a little chart to help remind me what is planted where. Tomorrow I have to search for a squirt bottle to keep the little buggers moist. Wish them luck – trust me, they’ll need it!
The glory of gardening: hands in the dirt, head in the sun, heart with nature. To nurture a garden is to feed not just on the body, but the soul.” – Alfred Austin
Way to go, Farmer Ted!
Not so much neater handwriting…just *smaller*. 😉
😛