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August 7, 2007

Bounty

A month or so ago, Ms. Green Thumb (that would be me) planted twelve small tomato plants. Progress reviews occur every weekend and MGT (Ms. Green Thumb) stands back and admires her handiwork. The plants are quite big now and the tomatoes themselves are equally as large. YAY. :-)



I never planted tomatoes before and there's always the chance that the results might not be as grand; it's hit or miss. Luckily the location and soil proved a perfect spot for my happy little garden. My only complaint about my handiwork would be the small problem of the weight of the plants. Last weekend I returned to find the plants on the ground, the weight proving too much for the thin sticks I tied them to. There they were, grounded and overwhelmed, overweight and crying out to me, "Help! I've fallen and I can't get up!" (*chuckle*) It took me 2 hours and buckets of sweat to resurrect the plants.



Those of you who have grown your own tomatoes can easily understand how this could take so long, given the fact that I did this singlehandedly and didn't have any help. Regardless of the strain, I did it, and it's obvious I'm proud of my small accomplishment. :-)

In addition to my successful tomato bounty, I'd planted a variety of flowers in the yard and they're flourishing also.



I can't even begin to name the type of flowers they are (I forget what they're called) but it is obvious I take my duties as Director of Plant Management quite seriously.



I suspect I'll be promoted to VP at the end of this year's harvest. ;-) It doesn't hurt that the rose bushes have been singing my praises, given my propensity to rid them of spot disease on a regular basis.



Who's better than me?

Then there's THE TREE.

A year ago I received 10 free trees after becoming a member of the National Arbor Day Foundation. I requested flowering trees (you can select the type of trees you want) and received two white Flowering Dogwoods, two Flowering Crabapples, two Washington Hawthorns, two American Redbuds and two Goldenraintrees. When delivered, the trees were no bigger than the length between my elbow and wrist and the type of tree was identified by a different color painted on the bottom of each one. The tricky part was that the paint was faded and made identification impossible. I gave up and decided to plant 4 of the trees and whatever it was, so be it.

It was an unseasonably warm day in January when I did my tree planting. The plants were delivered that previous October, and I had left them in my mom's garage in a large bucket of water that froze during November and December. The instructions were relatively simple, but the planting needed to be done before the ground was frozen. I feared I'd have to wait and plant them in the Fall but luck had it that that January produced a few very warm and mild days. The ground thawed and loosened up a bit and I quickly got down to business. The ice in the bucket had melted and the plants had to go in the ground pronto. Only 4 of the ten trees looked healthy, and though I can't say I followed the directions for planting to a T, I did the best I could under the circumstances.

Each week I'd return to inspect the 4 trees. It was the equivalent of watching grass grow. Nothing happened, no little buds sprouting out, and the branch sticking out of the ground looked as if it would snap were I to blow on it. Eventually I determined that 3 of the 4 trees weren't going to make it. It didn't help that the gardener hired to tidy up the yard squashed one of them. This was really my fault, not his, since I neglected to put a small fence around the tree (aka, DON'T SQUASH THE TREE!) I pulled the other two out of the ground with my fingertips; no effort was necessary. Each one slid out of the ground so quickly that had I used any type of force behind it, I would have gone flying backwards. The last tree had tremendous potential. I noted smallish leaves sprouting at its base and I prayed it would take. Here's what it looked like this past weekend:



You can't tell from the photograph, but the tree is now at least 3 feet high. (YAY!) It remains in the early stages of growth and even though it is fenced (I wasn't taking any chances) there is still the danger of accidental flattening via an ignorant lawn mower operator. I shudder at the thought. When I returned this past weekend to conduct my weekly inspection, I found the fence had been displaced from around the tree and was so horrified I required sedation. (wink) This latest development was distressing to me, given the fact that the fence is white and you can't miss it. (Duh!) Pulling up a lawn chair and playing security guard for my tree isn't an option. However, should anything happen to that tree while I'm off the premises I can guarantee there will be some serious ramifications. All I can say is god help the idiot that squashes my tree.

And that concludes today's chapter of Dusting My Brain: Gardener's Edition. [wink]

Cindy

Comments

Brain matter deposited by: susan on August 7, 2007 8:41 AM

Brain matter deposited by: zed on August 7, 2007 12:16 PM

Brain matter deposited by: Cindy on August 7, 2007 7:20 PM