Monday, September 12, 2011

In the beginning...

Okay then...here I go! My name is Leah - pronounced however you see fit...people rarely get it right anyway...officially it is pronounced Lee-ahh...unofficially it is pronounced like Princess Leia from Star Wars...that is my preference although I have grown up with Lee-ahh my whole life and therefore that is what I generally get. Also, it obviously isn't spelled Leia so therefore I get Princess Leia references but not the cool name. I digress...this blog is about my gardening, not my name. This first post will be lengthy...but only because I need to catch you up to date. I will start from the beginning and try to quickly bring you to today...well...this past weekend anyway, when I installed my first REAL garden beds.

So here's the deal...I was not a gardener until about a year ago...no...scratch that...I was not a gardener until about 6 months ago...um...yea...we'll go with that.  It all started last Easter. I bought a orchid last Easter from my local Safeway to place in the center of the table. This was to be my first Easter cooking dinner at my boyfriend's house for his family whom I barely knew....it had to be perfect (I'm also a culinary student so it was doubly important it be perfect). Everyone told me that the orchid would likely die rather quickly which meant, for me, it would be dead shortly after everyone left that day...I had a bit of a black thumb issue. I was dubbed the kiss of death for plants. BUT...after dinner was over I placed the pretty little flower in my window in the kitchen...which just happens to be west facing. Since it was so nicely placed next to the kitchen sink...it was relatively easy to water (over water in the case of an orchid) but it seemed happy enough for a while.

After a month of the little flower continuing to thrive and bloom I thought..."Geez, maybe I'm not the kiss of death."  Suddenly...this spring came along and not only was my little orchid still alive...it was creating blooms left and right, 3 then 4 then 6 then well...you get the point...the orchid bloomed uncontrollably in my kitchen window for over a year (and it is still blooming I might add - see picture).
Anywho...so I figured, "Well Shit...if I can keep an orchid alive and THRIVING...I can grow most things...right!?"  So I decided, come spring I would start my own vegetable garden. While waiting for spring though I planted some herbs in the window with the orchid. Very quickly I had basil, parsley and chives.
By spring I was coveting the starts that were showing up in all the stores and I quickly broke down and bought my first planter box, a cherry tomato start, a cucumber start, a purple bell pepper start and a red bell pepper start. I was soooooo excited. I planted, I stared admiringly, I turned away...and the dog promptly capped my purple pepper and cucumber. SON-OF-A...so I ran back to the store and bought some fencing. It was downhill from there. I couldn' stop myself...I bought another box...then converted a box that was in the backyard. I bought 3 heirloom tomato starts, pickling cucumbers, lettuce greens, and a green bell pepper. My son brought home seeds for snow peas...I planted those. I was OUT OF CONTROL!!! By the time summer hit...I had a fairly decent, although modge-podged together, garden.
Now...to watch it grow and reap the bounty of my hard labor.  And grow they did!! :) I just about did back flips when my first cherry tomato appeared!

Almost immediately I started planning a larger garden. I knew I would have to wait for the season to end before I could install it but I was determined to have a larger garden. This gardening thing was fun...and addictive evidently (btw - gardening supply store...very lucrative business considering the addictive quality of gardening).

So there you have it...the beginnings. Ahhh...but now you are wondering...did she get her bigger garden...???  To be continued...tune in next time for more fun adventures in Leah's garden...  ;)


3 comments:

  1. Blogga please! Love to have buddies that have the same passion of gardening - since I am a beginner, I can use all the help I can get... and tell me all about it! Cheers to home gardens! Belinda

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  2. BTW, the orchid I bought at Safeway died, and never came back... Belinda

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  3. Belinda - Always good to know I'm not alone in my gardening journey. Sorry to hear about your orchid. If it helps any...I will likely be posting the demise of mine in the not too distant future......stay tuned. ;)

    -LTux

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