1st Ever Garden Project

I am a certifiable plant killer. I can kill anything – even a cactus. My well-intentioned friends and family have, for years, cast shame upon me as their visit revealed the dying leaves of their housewarming/birthday/ anniversary plant gifted earlier. My summer “garden”  usually consists of planter boxes purchased at well known grocery store chains who package up these flowering fetes and charge an enormous fee for doing so. If it weren’t for guests who take pity on them and pick up the watering can or my kids who think it is fun, these would die as well.

Which is why many family and friends laughed when we recently moved from our downtown city sanctuary and uprooted to a 100 acre farm. “Seriously?” my friend asked. “YOU are going to plant CROPS? You will just kill those as well only on a hugely greater scale”, she said. Yes, I thought. She is right: 100 acres of dead plants is a pitiful sight and downright embarrassing.  I need to reform my sad sowing ways.

So I did…well almost. Before our move from the big city, I dug up my almost dead flowers from the plastic planter boxes and replanted them in large boxes. I took my three lonely and close-to-leaving-for-the-other-side aloe plants and tucked them in together. I took my last standing plant gift basket given by dear friends and decided that I was going to give it the gift of life. My one-leaf-alive spider plant was a long shot but I brought it along with 2 vines that were on their last legs. Yes, I was going to become a waterer.

With the move, when we arrived at the farm in mid November everyone was traumatized – including the plants. Most of the plants shriveled up even more, like the Wicked Witch of the West. But unlike that nasty old witch, these plants once again required water they were not shriveling because of it. So, again I reminded myself that I had to change my plant killing ways and really do this. I made it a routine to water them every other day and to touch their leaves and prune them every week. Amazingly they popped back to life and have blossomed. My office feels full of life because of them and they have grown at least 4-fold since getting here. I feel so proud when I look at them and marvel at their tenacity. At the risk of sounding like a nut, I honestly think they are happy.

So. What next? Well, I am going to plant a veggie garden. Not any old garden either. I am going to have a project. I want to know if plants really do respond to humans and to what extent. As I have to see this for myself, I will plant 3 gardens. The first will have all of the veggies planted and I will water it very day. The second one will be exactly the same in size and veggies planted and I will water it every day AND talk to them. The third one will be the same but will have water, talking and I will make it a point to run my hand  on at least one leaf per plant per day. I want to see if  any of this makes a bounty difference. If it does I will have loud speakers out there next year….
Follow my plant project as found here, on my blog, under the top header: My Life.

Wish me luck!