A Green(ish) Thumb

So, here I am once again! I am giving myself a small congratulations on being here two days in a row. The excitement from yesterday's writing kept me energized all day yesterday, and I had to come check on this new budding little word garden at 2am to really believe that I had started.

If only I could revitalize my plants so easily.

What had started out as a blissful little experiment about a month ago, has taken a slightly tragic turn. Since coming to Ontario, and especially over this past spring I seem to have grown an inclination towards organic foods. Now, don't get me wrong, the produce here is really, really good - better than what I've seen back home - but it also has beautiful, rich soil that seems perfect for planting and growing things. So, my dearest better half has been humoring me and this long march towards summer and has helped me set myself up with a little vegatable garden of sorts.

We took a trip to our local Home Depot, and after waiting several minutes, I was further indulged by this kind, sweet gentleman who answered all of my questions about gardening. I had picked up several seed packets of cucumbers, bell peppers, and cilantro, plus a little started pack that had peat pellets in it. Simply drench the peat until it expanded to the proper size, add two or three seeds per pellet to ensure that at least one seed began to sprout, cover them over in their little tray to make a pseudo-greenhouse and viola! Seedlings! Well, to a point, it worked - and it worked really well!


My cucumbers grew like weeds and in a little while it was time to transplant them. Hence the trip to Home Depot. (I'm afraid my story telling isn't very linear, so bear with me) The gentleman there was really helpful. He suggested that I transplant my cucumber seedling in to a fiber pot to get some great root growth growing before I either decide to put them in the ground, or in a bigger tub. So, armed with 18 little fiber pots, and a bag of dirt tailored to flower and vegetable gardens off we went! Since it's only an experiment we swung by the dollar store to grab some last minute gardening supplies - gloves, mini shovel, trowel and all that. My experiment will be deemed a success if I don't kill anything and manage to grow something, and I am more familiar with gardening jargon and lingo (but at this point, I'll just settle for not killing anything).

So, here I was trying my hand at playing Mother Nature to these foster plants. The snow was finally disappearing off the ground and the temperatures started to rise. Excellent plant growing weather. The worst of the cold days and nights are behind us. Soon, I will be taking care of glorious blooming plants and have an amazing harvest of some of the biggest cucumber and bell peppers that I had ever seen! I was going to be such a raging success! Beginner's luck wouldn't let me down!



Or so I thought.

Mother Nature has a funny sense of humor. Clearly, the old cliche of imitation being the sincerest form of flattery is lost on her. She graced us with a beautiful day! Warmth and sunshine, temperatures soaring into the high twenties, low thirties and with just enough of a breeze to lift the hot, damp hair off the nape of your neck! Unthinking that it would get drastically cold over night, and thinking that my cucumber and cilantro were at this point hardy enough to survive a night or two outside, I left them in the elements. Alone. Defenseless. Innocent.

Temperatures dropped over night to roughly ten degrees. The wind rose and was bitter, biting at your cheeks. If my plants had voices, they would have wept for shelter. If they had hands they would have knocked on my door for comfort. Instead, they are silent and still and lie drooped over and wilted in their tiny little fiber pots. Their leaves have withered and curled, their once straight, proud stems bent and some broken. I am trying to rescue them, keeping them watered and resting in sunshine, trying to nurture and rehabilitate them back in to good health. Sadly, all efforts right now aren't looking too well.

I might need to start over, with little seedlings in a pseudo-greenhouse. Perhaps another trip to Home Depot and talk to the kindly old gentleman and ask for better gardening tips.

Until then, I can only beseech Mother Nature to take pity on the poor plants that I am attempting to grow, and perhaps deign to reignite them.



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