Gardening

Every couple of months I buy a plant. It looks totally awesome for a week on the counter. Than I kill it.

Basil. Rosemary. Chives. Flowers that were gifts that I forgot to water.

There are two plants that I've had for a year + that have made it. One is an Aloe plant. The other is a Gardenia (that has never bloomed, ever, but is still kicking)

This spring we tried to plant a vegetable garden. Well, I tried to plant a vegetable garden.

Unfortunatly, being newbies to CO, we planted way to early and our plants had to fend off not one but two snow storms. Apparently one hail storm as well- we were out of town for that one.


Anyway, as you can tell it's been quite the up hill battle, I keep watering those little tiny green shrivels every night. I even bought more peppers, a watermelon, and a bunch of flowers a couple weekends ago. So far, I managed to only kill one Zinnia and a bunch of little purple things...


One day I went out to find one red tomato on the most shriveled of tomato plants. The one little vegetable that plant would ever give.

It was delicious.

Joe gets really frustrated at all the money I've thrown away (I can't blame him really).

Gardening really is hard work.

Hard work in that so many things can go wrong. Hard in that you really have to get to know your plants- almost start a relationship with them. They want to give- to nourish- but only if you give them the right things to succeed. Some are hardier than you would think- like the potatoes that are growing that I didn't plant (from our compost bin, I can only guess). Or the random cucumber plant (also from our compost I assume). Others I bought at a premium only to wither away in one sad day.


I have found a new respect for our farmers up at Grant Family Farms. The price we pay for our produce, the dollar amount for our chicken or our eggs, does not even begin to represent the work that was put into growing that food.

So to all of our farmers: thank you for your hard work. You really are under-appreciated.

In the meantime, I will continue to water my shriveled up plants until it's time to close up for the winter. And maybe try again next year.