You know those "as seen on TV" herb gardens they advertise every year at Christmas time? Does anyone really buy those? Apparently not in my family. I asked for one for Christmas and my request was ignored by husband, son, daughter, and even Santa. Perhaps they didn't quite take me seriously.
My husband's initial reaction was a snort. "You've been playing Farmville so long on Facebook that you're actually starting to believe you're a master farmer!"
True enough. Mindless hours of point-and-click planting and harvesting had erased the memory of a lifetime of green thumb deficiency. In the fifth grade, I received a blue ribbon at the county fair for my 4-H demonstration on building a terrarium. The judges would have quickly retracted the award if they had shown up on my doorstep later to inspect said terrarium. What they might have discovered would have been a clump of brown-leafed choleus and withered ferns. I was no George Washington Carver even back then.
But when Christmas morning rolled around with no herb garden in my stocking I decided to take matters into my own hands. So off I went to the garden department of our local Lowe's. I purchased one of those Jiffy windowsill greenhouse starter packs and six seed packets of herbs.
Today being the end of one year and the beginning of another seemed the perfect time to launch this agro-adventure. So this morning I followed the instructions on my mini garden, soaking the little planter pellets with water, and carefully counting out 3-4 seeds per peat pod. No easy task, I might add--except for the cilantro, the seeds were the size of flecks of dirt. And fifty-five year old eyes found them difficult to distinguish from the actual soil I dropped them into. Did I really bury some seeds or just imagine that I did? I guess we'll find out in 7-20 days. Stay tuned.
Anyhow, it probably isn't the most exciting way to mark the end of a year and a start of another, but that's how I roll.
The Kitchen Garden Novice
My husband's initial reaction was a snort. "You've been playing Farmville so long on Facebook that you're actually starting to believe you're a master farmer!"
True enough. Mindless hours of point-and-click planting and harvesting had erased the memory of a lifetime of green thumb deficiency. In the fifth grade, I received a blue ribbon at the county fair for my 4-H demonstration on building a terrarium. The judges would have quickly retracted the award if they had shown up on my doorstep later to inspect said terrarium. What they might have discovered would have been a clump of brown-leafed choleus and withered ferns. I was no George Washington Carver even back then.
But when Christmas morning rolled around with no herb garden in my stocking I decided to take matters into my own hands. So off I went to the garden department of our local Lowe's. I purchased one of those Jiffy windowsill greenhouse starter packs and six seed packets of herbs.
Today being the end of one year and the beginning of another seemed the perfect time to launch this agro-adventure. So this morning I followed the instructions on my mini garden, soaking the little planter pellets with water, and carefully counting out 3-4 seeds per peat pod. No easy task, I might add--except for the cilantro, the seeds were the size of flecks of dirt. And fifty-five year old eyes found them difficult to distinguish from the actual soil I dropped them into. Did I really bury some seeds or just imagine that I did? I guess we'll find out in 7-20 days. Stay tuned.
Anyhow, it probably isn't the most exciting way to mark the end of a year and a start of another, but that's how I roll.
The Kitchen Garden Novice
