two black thumbs
so when we were in idaho, i decided that i was going to have a garden. (if you know me, you can go ahead and start laughing now) so i planted a bunch of squash seeds outside. nothing happened. later, i decided to try again, and planted some in cups inside. i grew three happy green plants. i put them outside. they looked sad. we decided to put some compost on them. we didn't have a clue how to compost. by "compost" i mean kitchen scraps. earwigs came and ate up the plants. weeks later, ONE of the original seeds sprouted. the plant was much hardier, having been "born" outside, instead of transplanted. it grew and grew and grew. one squash appeared. the earwigs came back (overnight) and gobbled up my one baby squash. i couldn't decide whether to be mad, sad or just laugh.
stephen forbade me from attempting to garden again. especially after i killed all but one of our house plants.
a few weeks ago, i met (for work) this woman from master gardeners. it's like LLL for plants. they help you learn to do it right yourself, and its all volunteers. anyway, i told her this story, and that i dreamed of growing my own food. could she help me? at this point, i was kind of expecting her to say "oh, its not hard. you can grow anything! just try again! or something else cheery. if this had happened, i'd have ignored whatever she said, assuming that she just didn't really understand the pitch black color of my poor thumbs. but what actually happened, was she listened to the story, thought about it for awhile, and then declared. peas. you can grow sugar snap peas. (she actually said "sweet peas" but later clarified that sugar snaps were what she meant.)
and - lo and behold - i apparently CAN grow sugar snap peas. OK, there's no peas yet, but almost all of my seedlings are coming up and they look strong and healthy. (again, getting tips like "soak the seeds overnight before you plant them" definitely helped)
i'm so excieted. if i can get one, just ONE sugar snap pea to eat, I will consider it a successful experiment. I've never eaten anything I grew myself before. :-)
stephen forbade me from attempting to garden again. especially after i killed all but one of our house plants.
a few weeks ago, i met (for work) this woman from master gardeners. it's like LLL for plants. they help you learn to do it right yourself, and its all volunteers. anyway, i told her this story, and that i dreamed of growing my own food. could she help me? at this point, i was kind of expecting her to say "oh, its not hard. you can grow anything! just try again! or something else cheery. if this had happened, i'd have ignored whatever she said, assuming that she just didn't really understand the pitch black color of my poor thumbs. but what actually happened, was she listened to the story, thought about it for awhile, and then declared. peas. you can grow sugar snap peas. (she actually said "sweet peas" but later clarified that sugar snaps were what she meant.)
and - lo and behold - i apparently CAN grow sugar snap peas. OK, there's no peas yet, but almost all of my seedlings are coming up and they look strong and healthy. (again, getting tips like "soak the seeds overnight before you plant them" definitely helped)
i'm so excieted. if i can get one, just ONE sugar snap pea to eat, I will consider it a successful experiment. I've never eaten anything I grew myself before. :-)