I am not a gardener. I generally feel quite a heavy dose of pity for the plants that are brought into my care as I know their chances for survival are low. So when our neighbors brought over a couple of extra vegetable plants that they couldn't fit into their garden I felt sorry for the naive leafy babies.
It's not that I try to kill the plants, I just haven't mastered the art of remembering to water them when it is sunny and dry and not overwatering them when it's been rainy. They haven't managed to fit in to my daily rhythm (although the fact that the rhythm changes frequently could also be part of the problem...).
But these vegetable plants (a cucumber, tomato, chives and peapods) are fighters. They have overcome the odds and survived several weeks now. And get this: they are growing. It's an incredible feeling watching them sprout up to new heights and now expose a few blossoms. I see where people can get hooked on this.
Today as Tyler and I were going around to the plants, about to give them some water (we're starting to be better about remembering--it's only taken us several rounds of sacrificial marigolds to get to this point) I noticed something spectacular--the peapod plant had PEAPODS! I was so excited I may have startled the neighbor's dog, but regardless, Tyler joined in and we started looking for more. There were lots! And we ate them, right then, right there. We managed to save a few for Luke too, who was off doing some inspiration work.
I am still riding a bit of a high from the experience. Though the credit is largely due to the determined and courageous spirit of the plants themselves (and the consistent rain we've had lately), I loved the thought that we had our very own vegetables in our very own mini-garden, fresh as fresh can be.
I started planning for next year and all the plants we could grow along the fence. Then, Luke came home and we started plotting for a potential farm many years down the road from now. We could be farmers, grow organic produce, write, teach and raise kids. It sounded beautiful, it felt possible.
I kissed them goodbye and road off to work on the bike, visualizing the rows of zucchini, carrots, lettuce, onions, strawberries and such--at which point I remembered, in our fervor, we forgot to water the plants...whoops!
Perhaps the farm will need to wait, but in any case, today's 9 peapods were an unexpected tasty treat!
