I am pleased to report that the roses are not dead, they’re just resting. I was much relieved to find that all five of my babies are slowly unfurling after a long winter’s nap. My tigerlilies are coming in, too. And here I thought I’d murdered them.
St. Louis’s last frost date is April 9th-ish, so I’m making a note in the PDA to set aside some time and start with the planting. I’m going to plant some lettuces today (the ground is workable, and all my books say that they adore cool weather). For a lot of my plants, I’m going heirloom. I’ve ordered two kinds of eggplant (Chinese and Italian), two kinds of basil (Italian and Thai), chives (Chinese), lavender, yarrow, hyssop, edible chrysanthemum (irresistible whimsy, that), parsley (Italian), borage, onions (”cipollini”), four kinds of tomatoes (pink, red, purple, and yellow), and two kinds of watermelon (one early icebox, one later regular type).
I realize this is the equivalent of watching paint dry for some of you, but the excitement of growing things is a recently uncovered thrill to me. It started with some old tomato seeds that, much to my astonishment, grew in the rocky ground near my front door after I tossed the seeds there. I got one tomato out of my “effort”, and ever since I’ve wanted to see more.
But there’s more to it than that — just seeing those lilies return after I thought I’d done them in brought brief tears to my eyes.
We all go through rough patches and hard times, and in our personal lives it can be difficult to perceive renewal and growth when it happens. Isn’t it nice to be able to see it for a change?
3 responses so far ↓
Steph: Be sure when you plant the herbs put them in some sort of enclosure or they will take over your garden. They grow ;like weeds and spread unmercifully. Mima
Interesting side note: I have been able to kill mint. Sad, huh?
My dad said he would start me on something easy. He is green thumb man. He got me some mint. I planted it. Watered it. Keep good care of it. it died.
A cheap enclosure idea that my mom used to use: old styrofoam coolers. She’d cut the bottom off, then bury the container with just its rim peeking over the soil. She also kept one that stuck out higher in the ground and grew watercress in it.
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