dr. green thumb

thyme and lavender.  impulse buys

Despite a reference in my previous garden post not easy getting green, I said that if the basil had not grown, that I would go to the grocery store and buy a starter plant and claim that I’d grown it from a seed myself, I have decided to be honest is all my gardening adventures.

For the sake of honesty I will admit that the latest additions to my garden were not grown from seeds but rather purchased as starters from Whole Foods.  On Saturday while doing a little shopping I came across a tempting layout outside the main entrance.  The stand held a variety of herbs and vegetables that were being advertised as two for $5.

After circling the stand twice I decided that rather than selecting starters for herbs or vegetables that I was already planning on planting from seeds, I would choose something else, lavender and thyme.  They were both healthy looking and smelled delicious, I immediately fell into the trap that grocery stores, including Whole Foods are betting that you will get caught in, the impulse buy.

I brought the plants home and set them on the table, they were beautiful looking.  I wondered why I wasn’t buying all my plants this way, certainly it was much easier, it satisfied my desire for immediate gratification, and it seemed to me that it was simpler to keep plants alive than to grow them.

When I put them next to my “first grow” my week old basil plant I realized why I wasn’t simply buying starters for everything in my garden.  Unlike the basil I hadn’t earned the satisfaction that comes from growing a plant from a tiny seed in the soil.  I will enjoy these herbs, fresh lavender teas, and thyme smothered on legs of lamb but they will not be the same as the basil used in a delicious pasta or the lettuce tossed in a summer salad.

chives growing from the head of this elephant

Speaking of the lettuce, it’s not yet begun to sprout.  Perhaps I’m being a tad impatient, since the basil has begun to grow I have become a junky to see my vegetables sprout and grow and flower and develop.  It’s possible that I’m simply being impatient but then the worried parent in me is concerned that I planted them too deep, or drowned them in too much water.

I will give it another week, maybe by next weeks update I will have little green sprouts just like the basil.

As for the rest of the garden, I was busy both Saturday and Sunday and did not buy the seeds necessary and have yet to plant everything I hoped to.  I suspect that I need to get these in the ground as soon as possible, we have had such beautiful weather of late that I don’t want my precious seeds to be missing out on the valuable yet elusive sunlight.
posted by: brian snider