Thinning seedlings as metaphor for life - Week 7

The indoor plants have gone crazy. One day, nothing in the watermelon seed pods, the next day, 1" high seedlings. They're growing so fast, I'll have to find a way to prop the lid over their section of the grow bed, before they're stunted.

My herb starters, on the other hand, have gone from barren black soil to a crop of fine green seedlings. To my mind, that is a good thing...picture a thick bed of mint, parsley or sage. The more the merrier, yes?

Evidently, no. The seed packet recommends thinning the seedlings to one per 2-3 inches after they've gotten to be 3 inches tall. This perplexes me, because when I see such a lush carpet of seedlings, grown because of the love and attention I paid to them, I am very reluctant to see any of them sentenced to die.

Reading further, I realize that in order to get the best growth from the plants, I have to make sure the strongest seedlings get the most nutrients. With so many plants competing for resources, all will suffer if I don't make that cut. It's natural selection at its purest, and in my eyes, its cruelest.

Some background on me: I've always had something of a Florence Nightingale complex. I want to nurse the sick to health (whether physical or emotional), from plants to pets to people. I'm also a bit of a hoarder. Not to the extent of those reality show nightmares, by any means, but I have held onto broken lamps, disfigured appliances and unfinished craft projects (plus their various paraphernalia) long after they should have been repaired/donated/thrown out. Over the years, it has created quite a clutter problem, but addressing it causes even more of a headache as I don't want to throw things away, but finding the right homes for my donate-able goods (and getting them together, and taking them there or picking up the phone for pickup) takes far more effort than shoving them deep in a closet. Our association doesn't allow garage sales, so lugging my things to another person's house to join theirs (after which I'll probably lugging 2/3 of it back) also drains the spirit. And posting ads on Craigslist or eBay are both time consuming and minimally fruitful, at best.

So I keep the stuff around. And it surrounds me like a little garden of stuff, overcrowded, weedy, sucking away life and competing for resources.

Ultimately, I decided to wait a bit to thin the herbs. They're not quite big enough yet, and I'm not emotionally strong enough to do the deed. What I will start doing, however, is de-cluttering my life. It may take a little time, and a lot more effort, but in the end, I think it will help me (and my garden) to grow.

In lighter news, I've spotted my first tomato! It's on the cherry plant, and I'm so excited. There are also a few tomatillos forming, which somehow makes me feel like I've accomplished something. Now I've just got to keep 'em alive until they ripen. I can taste the salsa now...

Week 5 - First harvest, signs of life to come

The glossy green leaves of the tomato plant inside the Topsy Turvy shielded a tiny yellow blossom, making it the second plant to have blooms (next to the cherry tomato). That means the Early Girl is, ironically, the last one to flower.

Following the advice of many a gardener's website, I added some fertilizer to the soil (organic, of course). Not that they seem to need it... the plants are growing so fast, I can hardly believe it when I compare a picture of the first week to now. It's hard to believe they were ever so small!

Unfortunately, the speed at which they're growing suggests that they might not be comfortable in their tiny home much longer. It's time to look into a larger growing space, and, from the look of things, some cages as well. The tomatillos, especially, are getting droopy, and all this gale force wind isn't helping much.

On a more celebratory note, we've had our very first harvest of the season! It took loads of patience to let the ruby jewel come to just the right level of ripeness before cutting it. It's neighbor is almost ready to pluck as well, while the third remains a pale green, though it continues to flesh out. I divvied up the fruit into five sections so that everyone (including the visiting in-laws) could share in the bounty (it was perfectly sweet and juicy).

The onions were looking a little haggard, so I ran some string to keep the rows a bit more tidy, and tied a few up to keep them supported as they adjusted to their new home. After a few days, theyr'e starting to perk up a bit. The wind seems to do more damage to them than the tomatoes, but the important part of the plant is underground, so hopefully they're all doing fine.

This week, I got the brilliant idea to plant some flower seeds so the little one could experience real blooms (as she is so entranced by them in books). We were rewarded in just a few short days with some tiny green leaves poking through to the sunshine. It was a butterfly mix of seeds that was planted, so it's anyone's guess what will appear. It's a rather delightful mystery!

Another growing "project" I've unwittingly embarked on is inside my kitchen window. A sweet potato I bought last fall for a meal had other plans, eventually sprouting three or four healthy branches. I put the end in water in the window to see how far it would grow, but my ever-curious toddler pulled it down and ripped the little plants right off the potato. I found them the next day and suspended the bottoms in water for a few days until I saw little roots pushing out, then put them in small peat pots on the window sill. To my great surprise and delight, I awoke one morning to find that the leaves had doubled in size! I've been adding water every day, and the shoots continue to explode. I'm very excited at the prospect of finding some cute pottery and having some pretty houseplants in the near future.

A few feet away, I've got seedlings for cayenne and red anaheim peppers planted. In just three days, the cayennes are already sprouting! I was afraid the area might still be too cool, with the crazy Las Vegas weather going from high 70s in the day to low 50s at night, but they don't seem to mind. The anaheim's haven't peeked through just yet however. Next week, I'll be starting my herbs! I look forward to bringing more new life into the world.

Week 4 - A time for transplants

A deep red blush is creeping up the cheek of the largest strawberry on the vine; the second largest is tinged with pink. As I looked through the leaves, I also noticed several buds as new fruit pushes its way toward the sun. I know it's only a few berries, but this pleases me more than I can say. I'm growing things. I'm a grower! Not quite ready for the lofty title of "gardener," but I'm feeling more confident.

The second plant, however, has had the same three tiny sad fruits as it had when it was first potted. Though I see signs of life at the base as it, too, tries to create new growth, I'm a little saddened. My mom (admittedly, not a gardener) advises me to poke the roots to stimulate growth (come to think of it, this also seemed to be her approach to child rearing.) I'm not sure I would respond to such behavior positively, if I were I plant, but I might try it if more progress isn't made soon.

I finally found a solution to replanting the onions that were so crowded in their tiny planter — a trip to Sam's Club (of all places) yielded a raised planting bed kit made of recycled materials. Two checks! (Pardon the poor image quality, it's a cell phone pic). The kit was easy to put together, though we opted for using only one of the two segments (our yard is teeny tiny, so that's all that fit anyway).

After some contemplation, hubby and I decided it was best to remove the rock from the area where we were planning to put the bed. There's plastic underneath to (presumably) inhibit weeds from poking through, so it seemed good to leave it in place. At this point, I'd like to offer an FYI to anyone clearing rocks from a seemingly small area of your yard: a spade is probably way too small for the job (unless you like taking ages and ages to accomplish it). The whole family got into the act, with the toddler "helping" by placing one rock at a time in the spade. Didn't make the job go faster, but it certainly made it cuter. Ultimately, we used empty plastic flowerpots as scoops to get the area clear.

Another trip to the nursery for soil (followed by a trip back after getting the wrong kind... one day, I'll learn), and it was time to plant. I wisely picked up a full-size shovel and rake as well, to make future projects easier. We spread the soil, watered it down and began planting the onion bulbs I didn't have room for in the first planter. As they were dried, it was much easier than transplanting the already planted onions, which had quite a root system developed already. As they were also much more pliable than their dried brothers, it was a bit harder to set them straight into the tiny holes created for them by our fancy garden equipment (aka a Baja Fresh drink straw). My lack of depth perception caused the rows to be less than straight, but I recon they'll grade on a curve.

Next up, we had to remove the Walla Walla onions from the bowl and replant those. This proved to be the biggest challenge, as the root balls were so tangled and intermixed, it was hard to get them apart. Afther a little coaxing (and perhaps a wee bit of cursing), they were replanted in their new home.

Finally, I added some garlic plants purchased on one of my soil-purchasing forays (told you I was impulsive).

Though I thought that was it for the week, a busted water heater merited a trip to Home Depot, where I did a quick turn through the garden section and found the holy grail: Tomatillo plants! I've been searching for these since day 1, and had all but given up hope. I picked up two, as my (limited) reasearch indicated that they were not "self pollinating." These two also had blooms already, which seemed like a good sign.

I thought about planting them in the space vacated by the Walla Wallas in the bowl, but it's increasingly clear that those tomato plants will need all the space they can get, and may themselves be transpalnted soon, so I opted for an unused pot I had hanging around. Now my salsa garden is complete.

By the way, I realize these pictures may give a sense of having a much larger growing area than I do, so I thought I'd include a wide shot of just what an eensy area I'm dealing with. The patio swing (from the previous owner) lost it's sunshade last year in a vicious wind storm, so it doesn't block the sunlight to my corner garden. I am beginnning to wonder what to do when the days get hotter. Right now, it's only getting to a comfortable 70 - 80 degrees outside, but soon those temps will soar. The next time I'm at the garden center, I'll have to ask about that. I ultimately plan to cook with these veggies, but I'd rather do it in the kitchen as opposed to the back yard...

How does my garden grow?

I'm not the world's most proficient gardener. I don't have a black thumb, mind you. Most of my houseplants over the years have stayed in some sort of alive state (except palm trees... go figure). It's just that I get bored looking after them sometimes, or life will demand more of my attention than the green things, and they quietly fade away. But after reading the blog posts and tweets of a few new online friends, I am ready to head back to the nursery and grow a few things.

In the past, I have suffered from over-enthusiasm. Why have a few potted flowers when I could have a balcony full of them? Why stop at flowers? Why not some strawberries? And a few herbs? And wouldn't a little tree look fabulous right about there? I'd get the seeds started or the tender plants potted and...WHAM! Summer.

Not being a proficient gardener is a huge problem when more is required than plant the seeds and water the dirt. These plants required fertilizer, those needed more direct shade. This bunch have to be pruned, that batch should be potted in a special soil and covered with organic mulch. Somehow, I always managed to put the shade lovers in the sun, keep the damp-soil lovers over watered and used the wrong soil entirely for others. The dry heat of Las Vegas summertime also clashed with my near pathological aversion to sun, heat and sweat (mainly because my lazy bones refused to wake early enough to tend to the growing things in the early part of the day). Thus...all my beautiful plants were toast by June.

Yet every Spring the urge resurfaces. This year, I was determined to try again, mostly for the sake of my two-year-old daughter. I thought it would be a good way to teach about growing things, and later about preparing the things you've grown for food. But I also decided that I would play it a bit more safe. Despite my urge to buy every type of vegetable, fruit and herb in the garden center, I decided to curb my enthusiasm and grow only the ingredients to make salsa.

After scoping out my teensy back yard for the spots with the most sun exposure (a very short list), I headed to the Lowe's nearby to see what they had to offer. Advice from others who do this sort of thing year after year led me to purchase seedlings rather than seeds, as I had waited a bit too long in the year for those to be fruitful. I looked over all of the plants carefully, and finally made my selections.

I chose three different tomato plants. The Early Girl, a slicing tomato, because the dear Kathryn Hall recommended them for a quick return on investment; The Mortgage Buster (a nice, big fat slicing tomato), because my parents gave me a Topsy Turvy planter and I thought it would look nice with fat, red fruits on it; and a cherry tomato plant, because my daughter is crazy for tiny tomatoes (though her tastes run more to the grape tomato).

Moving on to onions, there were few choices outside of the green bunch variety. I was looking for more of a yellow bulb onion, but no dice. I did find a Walla Walla sweet onion, though, and that sounded like a winner. Next, I weighed the options for peppers. Ultimately, though serranos, poblanos and habañeros looked exotic, I went with the good old jalapeño. After all, I had never really used the others before, and would hate to have a crop of chiles I didn't know what to do with (or worse, didn't like).

Rounding out my crops for the season was a bunch of cilantro (an herb I 'm not overly fond of, but will use in small batches, especially in pico de gallo). Staying true to my impulsive nature, however, I somehow ended up with two little strawberry plants as well.

My other new friend Lucy Jones made it plain that only organic soil would do, so my next stop was the giant bags of dirt stacked up head high on pallets in the corner. I always kinda thought dirt was dirt was dirt, but that's clearly not true. After much head scratching, I settled on a Miracle Gro Organic soil that had pictures of healthy, happy veggies on the bag.

Aside from the Topsy Turvy, I had no container for my little garden. One website I had consulted recommended a large, shallow bowl, so I set off to find one amongst the terra cotta pots and 30-gallon barrels. Unfortunately, the best I could do was a terra-cotta colored plastic bowl, and a little herb pot for the cilantro. I had a hanging basket from a pothos that had passed away years ago, and I thought that might do for the strawberries, so my excursion was complete.

After the bored cashier rang up my purchases and we placed them carefully in the trunk, I remembered that I needed one more piece of equipment rather urgently. I didn't recall seeing what I needed at Lowe's, so we moved across the parking lot to the Walmart Garden Center.

Besides having a teeny-tiny back yard, I also have absolutely no overhangs, rooflines or ledges from which to hang my Topsy Turvy, so creativity was called for. While visiitng my family in Phoenix, I was absently gazing at the hummingbird feeder in their backyard when I noticed what it was hanging on. My mom told me it was called a shepherd's hook, and I knew that it was the answer to all my prayers. There in Walmart, a rack of such devices waited patiently near the tomato cages.

After a bit of hemming and hawing, I ultimately went with the 84" tall double hook (thinking that the higher the planter, the more sun it might get). On my way out the door, a bunch of yellow onon bulbs caught my eye. How could I not add it to the purchase? It was just what I needed.

Later, at home, as I unpacked the little seedlings and put them on the patio to wait for morning, I couldn't help but feel a bit nervous. These little lives were in my hands now. In a few months, there would either be a bounty of veggies (and lots of yummy salsa), or another failed experiment. I looked at their tiny green leaves, so vibrant and trusting, and said a little prayer that this time, it would all go right.