The Green Earth Girl

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June 14th, 2010

I feel that my revelations in this blog are only news to my fellow newbies and myself. I can just picture all of you experienced gardeners, shaking your head at my wonderment over something you learned 25 years ago. But alas, I suppose I’m here to entertain you, and remind you of when you, too, were a newbie gardener. So today’s revelation: plants are as needy as three-year-old children! They require constant care and attention, and if you leave them by themselves for, say, a weekend, they’re likely to not survive. Now, I would never dare leave a three-year-old alone for 10 minutes, let alone 2 days. But I leave my plants alone all the time, and trust that they will fend for themselves. With the rare exception – basil, which I’m convinced will grow anytime, anyhow, possibly in the desert – my plants are all sickly and sad when I return from a few day’s absence. Now I know that I need to care for my plants, but I didn’t realize that when I planted my garden, I was putting myself in the position of parent for the next five or so months. I’m too young to be a parent. I’m not ready. My life has turned into an episode of “16 & Sprouting.” But with my trustworthy friend Mimi by my side, I think I’ll be able to overcome these co-dependency jitters and raise a garden that will eventually get on okay without me. Or one that will live in the basement and snack on Doritos all day. Here’s hoping for the former.