If you read my post on my grandmother’s stellar gardening abilities (Gardening With Gram: Anything Grows, September 18) and how I do not take after her in that regard, you can grasp the significance of this next venture of mine.
I will grow an herb garden in my greenhouse window so I can have fresh herbs. You know, for all the gourmet cooking I do. No, really.
I’ve been told I need to get closer to the Earth, walk barefoot in the grass, dig in the dirt, grow stuff, and all that. But the Earth hates me. The entire Great Outdoors hates me.
Tried the barefoot in the grass thing many times. That’s not just grass down there. That’s thistles and sticks and bugs and rocks. They know I’m there. I don’t know they are there. I tread on them. Not good.
And dig in the dirt? I’m not sure what they have in there but it makes my hands break out in a rash.
Trying to deal with leafy and flowering plants turns me into a big itchy mass of insect bites. Bugs love me. They bite me. I’m on their special menu all the time. Then I stay away from the plants and: they die.
So I try to know my limits when it comes to growing and gardening and go with it. But I noticed something this past summer that might be the answer to this whole ‘get close to the Earth’ thing.
Herbs appear to grow when they are in my custody. I know this because I had several pots of herbs lining my deck and as of this very day……they still live.
I took the major leap of faith, transplanted them into smaller pots, and arranged them in my sunny, warm garden window. As you can see, they are perky and happy.
So here’s the deal. You, my readers, will encourage me to nurture and cultivate these pretty plants because I will post photo updates every few weeks. I’m making a big commitment here……putting it out to the entire world…….so I’ll need to be diligent.
I will remember to water them, trim them, feed them…….even chat with them. They will reward me with fresh chives, rosemary, oregano, mint, parsley and basil!
My family will revel in the fresh new flavors that infuse my cooking with new life!
Omigod, what have I done! The pressure is on! Let the growing begin!
Sunday, October 5: all is well.
One of my gardening goals is to spread “weeds” all over my neighborhood. So many of the things we think of as weeds ( in our modern mindset of exile from Mother Nature), are actually nutritious, beautiful, medicinal, beneficial plants. I am propagating, encouraging, and spreading plantain, purslane, chicory, amaranth, mallow, borage, and milkweed throughout my own garden and surreptitiously throughout my neighborhood. One of these days I am going to start a meetup group that engages in guerrilla gardening. We will make seed bombs of weeds and other forgotten food plants and use slingshots to hurl them at those useless green lawns, golf courses and those boring landscaped hillsides and commercial plantings.
So, in anticipation of the change that my actions will introduce, I suggest that you plant weeds!
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Marlowe, this sounds wonderful. Of course, we don’t have the long growing season that you have. Let us all know more about your efforts. And pray for my herbs!
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Let me know how your experiment works. I can grow herbs in pots outside, but once I try to grow anything indoors, disaster strikes.
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Well, we shall see. I think the greenhouse window will help. I think. Libra is an air sign, not Earth! Maybe that’s part of the problem! Updates as needed……
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