Green Thumb

Did you know that amid all of my childhood dreams to be a dog trainer and an equestrian olympian and a veterinarian, I also always dreamed of doing something with plants?  Flowers and landscaping and forestry.  Horticulture. Greenhouses.  I love the dirt, I love growing beautiful things.  In high school, we had a class called 'Greenhouse'. that I managed to take 3 times. The first time, I aced the class.  The second time, I got back into the class by sheer luck, because my counselor... well she was a bit scatterbrained. I aced the class the second time around, and was able to absorb even more of the stuff I'd missed the first time around.  And then the third time, I wasn't actually taking the class as a student. But I was a senior by then and had a project pass, and I was able to get into the greenhouse class as a teacher's assistant basically.  This allowed me to be in the class entirely and learn even more.

At the end of this class each time, there was a field trip to the Minnesota Arboritum.  It's a gorgeous place, filled to the brim with anything a plant lover could possibly conjur up. It was during this trip that I'd decided I was going into landscaping.

Life intervened and as it turns out, I probably won't even have the design skill necessary to be a landscape designer.  But my love for the green has never died.

When we were renting, I always said that when I had a place of my own, I'd start a garden.  Well, we've been at the house now for almost four years and I still have no garden!

A couple of weeks ago, I stopped off where garden stuff was sold.  It was odd how once I was standing in front of that wall of seed packets, I started feeling giddy.  My high school knowledge came flooding back to me and I was so excited and happy to be standing there, able to pick out whatever I wanted to start growing. It was a rush. Isn't that a funny thing to get a rush over?

Anyways. Here's what I came home with:

I decided to start with some peat pots and indoor starter seeds. For this year, I'm going to make sure I am still capable of growing things before I start tearing the yard up.  The nice thing about peat pots is that once the seeds are well started and ready to transplant, you can just plant the entire pot right into the ground because it's made entirely from peat and will break up in the soil.  It's pretty slick.

I started with just two plants, using a full tray for each.

Some rosemary, because who doesn't love fresh rosemary? And some pretty white daisys.

I began by filling the small peat planters with seed start soil.

I poked a few seeds into each pot about a quarter inch down and then filled the rest of the way with more soil.  And soaked with water.

Um, no... I'm not feeding my new little seed plants Bud Light.  I swear.  It's just water.  I needed something easy to haul out some fresh water and an empty beer bottle seemed like the right thing to do.  Don't judge me.

A week later, I got brave because my little Daisy's were starting to poke their pretty little heads.

Can you see it?  That tiny little green thing right in the center of the photo?  It's a Shasta Daisy baby! 

Hey, it's an exciting event in my small little world, okay?

Since I was having some success, I went ahead and planted some jalapeno peppers, green peppers and this other little colorful leaf plant. 

Stay tuned for more 'baby' plant photos!

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On a totally seperate note... There is this house that's grabbed my attention.

I took this photo on the fly last night. It's not very good. But I had to be quick because there was another car coming from the other way and I didn't want them to think I was taking pictures of them as I drove by. 

This house is abandoned.  And not recently.  It's been sitting, quiet and empty, for a number of years now. It's one of those things that has clamped itself to my soul and now I have no choice but to research the property and find out what I can.  I don't know why I need to find out...  But I do.