March 22, 2004~~3:57 p.m.
How Does My Garden Grow
I am currently embroiled in a project the likes of which I would have never become involved in previously. No, I am not talking about the fact that every day at 2 p.m. I turn on HGTV to watch �Homes Across America� and subsequently, �If Walls Could Talk�, my two new favorite shows. I�m talking about my new favorite hobby: gardening. Now, I should be careful calling it �gardening� lest my loyal readers think I actually have a yard and a sizeable garden. I do not. I do, however, have a porch and now, two rectangular and two round pots full of sprouting things. After successfully growing a cut from a hydroponic plant a few months ago, I had been toying with the idea of evolving from the world of green houseplants to the more challenging arena of flowers�and I didn�t want to cheat by buying the ones that are already blooming. I used to scoff at the idea of having a yard and a garden because it seemed so reminiscent of middle agedom or like when, in Junior High, the school newspaper would interview a teacher about their personal side and they would say things like "I enjoy spending time with my cat and gardening" in response to the "what do you do in your spare time?" question. In addition, my parents have an enormous yard which, before they had money to pay a gardener to keep up, my sister and I had to help clean on weekends. Many a cold autumn day or hot summer morning was spent weeding and mowing that damn yard and I swore I'd never do it in adulthood. But, on a whim, a few weeks ago, I went to my neighboring Home Depot and purchased $6 worth of gardening products including some African daisy seeds and potting soil. (Aside: Home Depot is a hotbed (no pun intended) for finding money on the ground. While there, I found 11 cents. I have often entertained the idea of going there after hours to scour the parking lot for loose change but Omar threatened to have me committed.) I didn�t even own a pair of gardening gloves, let alone a spade, but I set about planting my seeds, convinced I would not reap what I had sown even though the seed packages proclaimed �Guaranteed to Grow!�. But a week later, my pessimism was answered by several little sprouts of what will one day be daisies. The directions on the packages said that I would have to thin and replant the seedlings when they got a few inches tall. So last week, Elizabeth and I took our first trip to Orchard Supply Hardware to purchase the planter box pots and some gloves to keep my nails clean. And miracle of miracles, OSH is my new favorite store!! Who knew what wondrous products lay behind those sliding glass doors and parking lot full of flatbed pickups! Elizabeth wore her sunglasses for the occasion, because that�s what you do when you�re too cool for a place, right? Well, I quickly decided that, indeed, we weren�t too cool for OSH and how could I have been so narrow-minded??!! We went up and down the rows, looking at all the products. I had no idea there were so many varieties of potting soil! And why didn�t anyone tell me about all the weed sprayers and the assortment of gardening tools I can look forward to purchasing! We wandered around the garden center checking out the flowers for sale and various terra cotta planting options including bunnies, frogs and your ordinary and boring round pots. Inspired by my success with the first two varieties of flowers I had attempted, I ventured into wildflower and sweet pea territory with two new packages of seeds to try. To celebrate our new favorite shopping experience, Elizabeth took a big poo in her diaper and off we went to transplant and reseed our pots. At first, I was concerned that the sproutlings wouldn�t take to their new home, but over the weekend they have really done well. I have had only a few casualties of the relocation, and am waiting with baited breath for the wildflowers and sweet peas to rear their pretty heads. And when those are done, I�m on my way back to OSH for more stuff! I am determined to create a nice garden-like space on our back porch so that when I look out the window, I will see something other than the Home Depot sign. Evidently, I am off to an astonishing and surprising start!
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