Green Thumb Woes

I should have realized my destiny when I was a kid and, wanting to try my hand at gardening, transplanted a weed. How hard could it be, my mom was always growing things, carrying buckets of dirt from here to there, and watering random patches of green things. My weed died. I should have given up then and there, after all innocent lives were at stake.

Inspired by my friend who has a lovely home and yard filled with all sorts of plants, I decided to try just two houseplants. I picked out the ones that were supposed to be the easiest to grow. I followed directions and tried to do everything right. When they looked near death I had my friend pick them up. Several months later I asked her how they were doing.

"They are recovering," she said sternly,"And they never ever want to see you again."

Our back yard garden is rough this year. My husband was able to grow many vegetables in our garden before. In the clay soil where we used to live all you had to do was skip backwards across a bare patch of earth, while whistling madly and spilling seeds from cup. Florida is another matter. We had three zucchini's, one cucumber, and two teeny green tomatoes that fell off the vine way too early. Now the plants that are left are just big leafy green plants. There is no hope.

My husband still wants to water the vegetable plants and keep them alive. Sometimes he works and asks me to water for him. I humor him and splash some water over the plants, but if they haven't done anything by now is there any hope for them? I was enthusiastically watering this one tomato plant in a corner. It sits outside my kitchen window and I remarked to my husband how tall it was getting. I'd never seen a tomato plant six feet tall before.

"Honey, I never planted anything in that corner." he said

"But, I've been watering it for you." I replied.

At least now I know that I am finally capable of growing a weed. The straggly six foot high weed is now sporting demented looking daisy flower things on the tops. It waves it's leaves at me and winks as I do dishes. Maybe we'd better try container gardening next year so I know what to water.

Gardening is a great money saving activity. Some people are even able to sell their surplus and make money with their hobby. We should definitely all try new things and see if they help. It also helps if we know our strengths and weaknesses as well. I know that I am a thrifty shopper and when there is a really good sale on diced tomatoes or spaghetti sauce, I can use my coupons to stock up because I can't always count on the bounty from my garden. Whoever heard of a person only getting three zucchinis from several plants anyway?