Sunday, June 14, 2009

Plant Babies!

I've never been much of a greenthumb. I never could get into gardening, not even on tv. I am captivated by the lowest of budget cooking shows and I often even find myself glued to the tv during the carpentry shows that follow the low budget cooking shows. PBS lost me, however, when it came to the gardening. It looked like dirt and sweat and hard work for not much payoff.

I guess I should start from the beginning. Dave and I threw a pizza party one Friday night. We invited our friends and set off to Macey's with a $25 gift card to buy the fanciest pizza toppings we could find. I headed straight for the pesto only to find shock and horror when I read the price tag. No three once jar of pesto should cost $7, I thought. The culinary cost of living in Provo, I guess. No big deal, I could make my own. Homemade always beats store bought anyway. I had a full bottle of nice extra virgin olive oil at home and all I only needed pine nuts and basil. The cost of those two ingredients alone added up to more than the cost of the jarred pesto. Sadly, the pizza party had to go on without the pesto.

Throughout the next few months, there were several times I wanted to cook with fresh herbs but could not stomach the cost. So, I decided to start my own herb garden. Seeds were cheap and with a small initial investment, I would soon be harvesting my own fresh aromatics, right? Well, not exactly.







Dave and I carefully planted our little seeds and measured the plant food to make sure the seedlings were well fed. Then, we put them inside to protect them from frost and we never touched them for weeks. I warned you I wasn't really a greenthumb.

Assuming the seeds were dead, I put them outside to throw the dirt away later. Little did I know how close they were to the sprinkler system our neighbors would soon activate.



A few days later, our little seedlings sprouted and our beautiful plant babies began to grow. Now I look at them every day. I finally understand why people can become so involved in gardening. Don't worry, I'm not talking to the plants or treating them like little people, but I feel fulfilled when I see how big they are getting. Who knows, a few more years and maybe they'll even be big enough to use in the kitchen! :)

Camping at Strawberry Resevoir

Camping at Strawberry Resevoir