Thursday, March 10, 2016

Remember I mentioned...

after all these years I've started to get seed and plant catalogs again.  I should have thrown them away.  I didn't.  I've spent hours thumbing through them and I want one of everything.  I know it's ridiculous, I live in an apartment for heaven's sake with very limited space.  I think the best I can do is contemplate planter boxes.  I think I can get my grandson to come and help...at least I hope so.

In one catalog I saw this front page ad.  "Half price vegetable sampler! Regularly 12.99, now only 6.50!  The ad goes on to say you get 1 seed packet each of Zucchini, Yellow Pepper, Radish, Tomato, Lettuce, Cantaloupe, Carrot, Beet, Cucumber, Pea, Bush Bean and Spinach. Wow!!!!!!  Is that a good deal or what?  I simply have GOT to buy this.  I figure if I can get just one plant of some of these varieties, (for instance Zucchini, Cantaloupe, Cucumber) they should provide enough fresh veggies to see me through the summer...making this purchase well worth the price.

My one patio gets sun most of the day and should be ideal for vegetable growing, and I think there will be enough room to have plastic planter boxes end to end to plant all of the above.  Of course I will have to do a lot of 'thinning' but I can always use the 'thinned' greens as part of salads so not much will go to waste.  Am I a crazy dreamer or what?

Then of course flipping through the pages of this magnificent publication I found items I had to leave behind at my old residence.  In particular, Red Rhubarb, Horseradish, and Jerusalem Artichoke they make beautiful garden greenery and are easy to grow.  Nice thing is I can purchase one of each, or multiples if I so desire...of course I have GOT to buy at least two each, in case one of them choose
to bite the 'dust'.

What the heck has come over me?

Shouldn't I be finding things 'not to do' instead of making more chores for myself, like weeding, thinning and watering?  Of course not.  I have always liked growing things, even when we were poor I would walk through my favorite Garden Center on a Saturday morning as they were cleaning and pick up broken stems and naked, forlorn, bare root seedlings I'd find on the concrete floor.  I could not bear to see them swept into a trash heap so I'd slip them into my purse and try to give them a second chance at home.

I think I embarrassed my husband because he would walk away and pretend he didn't know me. However, he was also frequently amazed at my success rate and eventually built me a lovely greenhouse to accommodate my 'free' plants.  If truth be told, I continued this practice even after I was able to afford to purchase any plant I wanted. Shoot, I'm still willing to give a sickly plant a home it does after all, have a 50-50 chance of survival.

And, just a few days ago I saw a tiny start of a tree (I think an alder) struggling to survive in the bark dust of my complex.  A pitiful sight it was.  I tenderly pried it loose and brought it home, it's sitting in water on the kitchen counter at the moment and I intend to plant it in a pot and hope for the best.  I guess I have never gotten over my Henry David Thoreau phase.  That's a good thing, right?

I'll keep you posted, but I'm sure you already know...I'm hooked...I expect dirt under my fingernails until the first frost of the fall season. Hopefully, there will be some good eating along the way.

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