Wednesday 5 March 2008

Thank You China and Mexico


Last winter I sprouted for the first time. Hee hee. Sounds like some fantastical story, eh? And actually, it was. I had never really believed that plants come from seeds, you know; it sounded like a whole lot of fairy-tale nonsense. When we did have plants, they first came into the house or garden as, well, little plants. And then I caved and bought this little packet of sprouting seeds and felt a bit foolish as well as completely awed by the fact that living things come from little dots.

Then there was our pathetic little garden. The only seeds that made it in from my big haul at Seedy Saturday last March were carrots, calendula, and beans. The calendula and beans did well, but the carrots were a sad, sad affair (water, must remember water...). And actually the pathetic-ness of it all had a lot to do with squirrels and racoons and birds and cats, so there!

So to say I'm a gardening neophyte is an understatement (I have a lot of information about plants and herbs in my brain, but that's a lot different than actually growing them!) This year I took out all the remaining packets of seeds, wrote their start dates on them and on our calender, and we actually did germination rate tests - so much fun! Safiya's eyes went big like dinner plates when she saw the beans sprouting! And also, I set up a grow lamp in the basement.

About which I am excited and conflicted, as I do not like purchasing new stuff. But we have only one little south facing window, and I really want to learn about starting from seed. So thank-you China and Mexico (and I do not mean that facetiously). Someone's work in a factory that is part of this industrial machine complex that I so desperately want to walk away from has enabled me to grow something green. Maybe if I grow enough it will be like carbon credits or something...

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