And Whatever It Is Farmers Raise

My friend Lynn works in a flower shop. She called about a week ago to tell me she was on her way over with a present, a little potted lavender, because when I said I always kill my plants, she took it as a challenge. Lavender, she promised, require occasional watering and they like to be completely bone dry before watering. I’d do fine, she promised.

My aura of plant death is extra embarrassing because the women in my family who aren’t me all have green thumbs. I didn’t get the Mackay green thumb, I got the lesser-known Doom Thumb. I think it’s recessive. It’s not that I don’t like flowers, it’s just that I can’t keep up with all the required maintenance. All that remembering to water. And not letting them freeze to death.

Sometimes people ask when Stick and I plan to have children, and I remind them that I can’t be responsible for a geranium.

But now I have this pretty potted lavender, and I haven’t killed it yet. It smells nice, and it has pretty purple flowers, and if we have one thing that needs care and attention, why not have two? This is the sort of logic probably employed by crazy cat ladies.

So Stick and I picked up a couple other herbs, because I dare you to walk past the smells of mint and basil and not want them. We thought we’d take them out of their sad little supermarket pots and put them in bigger ones. Since we were getting so garden-y, we decided to give a couple of seed packets a try, too. We set up a little balcony garden, with pots of dirt where we hope to soon have plants.

Today we had the first yellow-green tips of our tiny sprouting scallions!

Or carrots. I’m not entirely sure which is which, we mixed up the pots. I’m not very good at gardening.

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0 Responses to And Whatever It Is Farmers Raise

  1. Gabrielle says:

    Last year, we threw what we thought were dead seeds into a big pot on our patio/balcony. A couple days later, several of our dead seeds had sprouted, and a few days later, several more came up. We had no idea what they were because we had thrown so many in there. We decided to love them and see what happened. Two months later we had something that reminded me of Audrey II from Little Shop of Horrors, but instead of trying to eat me, she provided me with loads of Cucumbers and Cantalopes. To keep our Cantalopes from falling, we had to tie them up in panty hoes. It waw rather amusing watching Phil tell people why he needed them.

  2. Becky Niles says:

    Yay! You've done better than me… one of my poor lavenders is drooping dangerously close to giving up… Although the other is still perky. That's 50% success, right?>.> <.< >.> *Pets one kitty, ignores the second as he begs to be let out again*What? They may not smell nice, but they're very cute, and if they need a little care and attention, they are very affectionate. I might as well have two. πŸ˜‰

  3. stick says:

    I like the title to this post. It’s hard to find a good Crash Test Dummies inspired blog entry.

  4. Meg says:

    @Gabrielle Haha! That’s awesome! Both the idea of planting mystery seeds and sending your boyfriend (Fiance?) for pantyhose. I’m not entirely sure that Stick would go for that. I love your Phil adventures, btw.

    I don’t think we have space for vine-plants on our wee balcony, although the idea of a balcony with cukes climbing up the sides is pretty cool.

    @Stick Thank you! It was either that or “We could be happy in the country” but that didn’t sound too expat-y out of context.

  5. Andrea says:

    Who are you calling a crazy cat lady? Just because I talked Ian into two kittens when we were engaged on that logic … πŸ™‚

    Sadly, he’s cut me off at two; I’m not allowed to have any more.

  6. Meg says:

    I swear I didn’t have anyone particular in mind when I said that! πŸ˜›

  7. Kevin says:

    I won’t believe it without pictures.

  8. Pingback: Simpson’s Paradox » Out of Town

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