I do believe it is safe to say spring is officially here. If not, I guess I’m screwed. My garden babies were getting too big for their cribs. That is to say my seedlings were too big for their little pods and needed repotting. So, with that in mind, several of them had to be moved to their new homes outside. I think as long as we don’t get a lot of frost, or another snow, they should do fine. I’ve only moved the peas, beans, and sweet peas as of yet, and I have pretty good luck with those.
So, let me back up a moment and introduce myself. I guess that would be the polite thing to do. I’m Becky. I have a lot going on. I’m a full time student, a mother of three, two are twins with mild special needs, and I’m always trying new things around here. See, I have real, honest to goodness, ADD. So does my eldest son. The youngest two are too young to know yet. That means that as if the kiddos aren’t enough, I’m a handful for my husband too. LOL. ANYHOW……
So I’ve tried for many, many years to pull off this gardening bit. I have generally always forgotten simple things such as watering the poor buggers. Funny how they don’t go far without a little water. One year, I tried a portable mini-greenhouse, and when it got hot out, I forgot to leave the door open, steaming all my little seedlings.
A couple years ago, I tried again with the same mini greenhouse. I planted some sort of hot peppers and two kinds of tomatoes. I wound up with 4 delicious tomatoes and more peppers than I knew what to do with… especially when you consider I had no idea what kind of peppers they were. Yeah, I think of that whole bunch, we used one. And I don’t even remember what for.
Along with outdoor gardening, I have also tried several times to grow indoor plants. The closest to success I had was when I spent six months in Japan. I had a Peace Lilly, a bunch of bamboo, and this cute little porcelain egg that grew grass “hair”. They did wonderfully, but I had to leave them behind because of import laws and such. That was a sad day, as I handed them over to my friend who was staying behind. She nearly had to pry my fingers off the pots. It was a real sad break up. Tears, me running after the train with a handkerchief…. “I’ll wait for you!!!” Hahaha.
So when I came home, I was inspired to try again. The outdoor stuff, failed. The indoor stuff, survived a couple months, then died. Boy it was getting frustrating. I’d read anything and everything I could, and still couldn’t figure out what the Hell I was doing wrong. Then last year came around. I don’t know what hit.
I think it started as I walked down the gardening aisle at the local Lowes and saw these little seed starting window sill greenhouses. I suddenly saw a way that maybe I could grow things without killing them before they are even big enough to put in bigger pots, or the ground, to give them a fighting chance. So my interest was, once again, renewed.
I think I spent a grand or so, mostly splurges out of pure excitement. Tons of those little window boxes, stacks of pots, heaps of bags of soil and things to mix with the soil, piles of special tools, oodles of extras.
See, at my house, there are very few places that get enough sun to grow veggies, and veggies are what I wanted to grow. And when it came to the seed packed aisle, I had no edit button. If it looked yummy, I bought it and was determined to try. I have a long driveway, and most of it was covered in these pots full of big, healthy, bushy plants. I was in heaven. I had zucchini, tomatoes, peas, beans, more tomatoes, flowers, peppers (that I COULD identify), pumpkins, ground cherries, more tomatoes, herbs, corn, carrots… all kinds of goodies. And I could move them as needed so that they could enjoy sunbathing all day long.
It wasn’t the most convenient set up, but it was by far the best success I had enjoyed in the area of growing plants of any sort. I thought for sure it would grow hugely successful, until I got injured while hiking and couldn’t tend to my garden daily as I once had. Suddenly my tomatoes were getting blight, and dying off. My pumpkins were unable to tolerate the pots they were in, and I couldn’t get them replanted in time to survive. My corn was the same story. Zucchini was left on the vine way too long, and when the plant figured it had done its job in reproduction, it died off. Flowers weren’t getting the pruning they wanted and the slugs finally reached all the rest. All because I couldn’t do my daily tending.
It was so sad to watch my baby die so slowly and suffer so much, but at the same time, I was given the opportunity to learn new lessons to set aside for the next year to try again. Here I am. It’s the next year. I’m trying again. As I try my new things, and I learn even more through success and failure, I’ll pass them on. I’m not a conventional gardener. The things I grow, I grow because I want to, and I don’t care what “zone” I’m in, I simply try to accommodate the conditions required. I think it’s fun to find new ways to do things, and a huge pride point to grow things others around me swear can’t be done. I’d love to hear from you as well, if you have ideas, lessons, adventures….
Let’s hope we all have a fruitful year in the gardens this year! Cheers. J
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