Wednesday, April 13, 2011

In the Garden

Last year I conducted an experiment in my parent’s garden. I decided I would give planting some vegetables a try. Both of my parents have green thumbs. I didn’t have much luck with plants growing up. I killed a lot of plants my mom had given me. I convinced myself that I was not the progeny of these two veritable botanists. Nonetheless I was going to give this a try.

I went to the local Home Depot to see what kinds of seeds and plants they had. It was already a little late in May when I got this brilliant idea so I wasn’t sure what I would find. I picked up some seeds for green and yellow zucchini, some spinach and various flowers. I followed the instruction on the packages doubting what I was doing all the way. I left the seeds in their pots and planters for them to do whatever they needed to do.

The following weekend we went to visit my parents and nothing had happened. I was a little bummed but decided that they would still need more time. I watered them all with Miracle Gro and let them be.

The next weekend leaves began to sprout on all of the planters and the following week they were flourishing. A few weeks after that we moved the zucchini plants from the planters to the ground. Then there was a boom. Week after week we’d take a trip to see my parents and there were zucchinis galore. I couldn’t believe it because I didn’t really do too much (as you can see for yourself because I’ve described it in this entry)!

After a while though I was at a loss for what to do with all the zucchini that was proliferating in my parent’s garden. I grilled a lot of it, made ridiculous new concoctions with it, and I even gave some away. Regardless of how the insane amount of zucchini that I ate last summer, it was really fantastic to see what I planted with my own hands become something I could eat. My parents were proud of me although they never said this to me. They told people we knew that I had planted zucchini and that a lot of it grew (heck, my parents were helping me get rid of the explosive population of zucchini taking over their garden).

I’m going to continue my experiment this year; this time with fewer zucchini. I have to figure out what happened with the spinach; it never really became more than a few leaves. I tried some eggplant already this year. I haven’t seen much come out of those seeds yet. I’m keeping my fingers crossed for another vegetable harvest this summer.

1 comment:

M said...

So exciting to be able to grow your own food! You'll make that thumb a little green yet!