Luckily my brother, Robert has a true passion for gardening of which we have been the beneficiaries. He has worked countless hours in our yard augmenting soil (if you can call clumps of clay and rock that) with his mushroom and black cow mix. He has given me flowers which he started from seeds and even encouraged me to harvest my own seeds from the spent blooms of flowers from last year. Wow that sure appeals to my frugal nature – who doesn’t love free flowers? He reads about different seed varieties and buys plants wherever he goes when he finds something different from those at his local garden center (in our general geographic area). Be careful if you ask him a gardening question because you are certain to get a 20 minute explanation with references to things you vaguely remember from that college horticulture class you incorrectly thought would be an easy A. Robert gave me 6 different varieties of garlic and shallots to plant last fall and bought me a beautiful rosemary plant when we were vacationing in Michigan last summer. It is like having an open adoption because he likes to check up on his plants and receive pictures periodically as well as progress reports. I wonder if he will notice that I accidentally let the rosemary die over the winter so I will be replacing it with an imposter?
My sister Ann and my brother Robert who both live in Louisville have started a Mother’s Day tradition in our family of a plant exchange. They both start seeds under grow lights in their basements and then when we get together for Mother’s Day (which is prime planting time in Kentucky) we exchange plants. I generally try to remove the Burpee plant label from my “starters” but not sure I am really fooling anyone. Last year I did try one year to do my part and start my share of the seedlings. Robert was contributing tomatoes, broccoli and flowers, Ann had started cucumbers, tomatoes and peppers, and I said I would do herbs – basil, oregano and lavender. OK are you familiar with how teeny tiny those seeds are? There was no way I was going to be able to separate and nurture 20 pots each with a seed in it the size of a speck of dust. It just didn’t work out. Why didn’t I say I would do beans? This year I decided just to be a charity case and just be the unashamed beneficiary of the fruits (and vegetables) of their labors so I loaded up my car with tomato and pepper plants, sweet william flowers, basil, zinnias, marigolds and cosmos. I will certainly give them all my best efforts knowing they were raised with love and care by my siblings. I think I can, I think I can, I think I can.....
My sister Ann and my brother Robert who both live in Louisville have started a Mother’s Day tradition in our family of a plant exchange. They both start seeds under grow lights in their basements and then when we get together for Mother’s Day (which is prime planting time in Kentucky) we exchange plants. I generally try to remove the Burpee plant label from my “starters” but not sure I am really fooling anyone. Last year I did try one year to do my part and start my share of the seedlings. Robert was contributing tomatoes, broccoli and flowers, Ann had started cucumbers, tomatoes and peppers, and I said I would do herbs – basil, oregano and lavender. OK are you familiar with how teeny tiny those seeds are? There was no way I was going to be able to separate and nurture 20 pots each with a seed in it the size of a speck of dust. It just didn’t work out. Why didn’t I say I would do beans? This year I decided just to be a charity case and just be the unashamed beneficiary of the fruits (and vegetables) of their labors so I loaded up my car with tomato and pepper plants, sweet william flowers, basil, zinnias, marigolds and cosmos. I will certainly give them all my best efforts knowing they were raised with love and care by my siblings. I think I can, I think I can, I think I can.....
No comments:
Post a Comment