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At Last, Existential Clarity

Wednesday, July 14th, 2010

Hi blog. I’m sorry I’ve been ignoring you. I don’t really have a good excuse, except that life happened.

But you’ll be happy to hear that while I haven’t been reporting on my gardening, I’ve still been doing a lot of it. The nice thing about gardens is that once they’re started, they basically take care of themselves. So my “gardening” has been more watchful and supportive than active or determinate.

It’s been wonderful to watch these young lives thrive and stretch in just a few weeks. Plants really have an amazing single-focus existence: eat nutrients, absorb sunlight, grow taller. They’re totally focused and (seemingly) completely fulfilled.

Hah. Good for them.

I feel bad about falling down on my blogging, you guys. And it seems like I could be doing a lot more with my life in general. What the hell am I doing with a full-time job that keeps me busy 40-50 hours a week and never fulfills any of MY real goals? Where am I going in this crazy ship called life, anyway? I don’t want to settle ever, let alone when I’m under 30!

*sigh* Let’s look at happy pictures of cats.

tomato_cat
See? Adorable.

You are small and round. Clearly you are a toy.
Seems like I fulfilled somebody’s expectations at least.

Mine.
Clearly designed for the discerning feline.

…

Ohhhhhhhhhhh I see. It all makes sense now.

I do have a purpose after all, and it seems my life has fulfilled its ultimate goal: eco-friendly cat toys.

Look for more success stories in coming weeks.

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Container gardening

Tuesday, May 4th, 2010

Well, it’s the first week of May now, and I’m well on my way to a full-fledged, thriving aboveground garden. I guess now is as good a time as any to reflect on the differences I’ve noticed between it and previous gardens, those traditional in-the-dirt ones.

  • No weeds. Bang, number one benefit right here. I’m working entirely from bagged potting soil, so it’s sterilized and pre-enriched. Not very DIY, I know, and it’s kind of expensive. But it is FANTASTIC to grow only the plants that I intend to, with no interlopers getting a free ride.
  • Literally RIGHT THERE. I’ve never had a garden that was literally ten steps from my sofa. Even window boxes haven’t had that same sense of locality.
  • Dries out quickly. Unfortunately, this is the main drawback of container planting for me. Those suckers dry out real fast when it’s hot and sunny. I often spend about 15 minutes before work, just running back and forth to the faucet so they won’t shrivel up during the day.
  • Portable. This is another awesome part of container gardening, because it means that I can plant them earlier in the season. If it gets too cold, I just haul ‘em inside!

All in all, I’m very happy to report that my container gardening has been a big success. My plants are thriving, my lettuce is out of CONTROL, and I’ve already been using my herbs for sexy dinner preparations. I’m looking forward to summertime grill parties out on the balcony, with music and strings of lights in the warm balmy air. We’re entering the long hot season at this point, and my veggies and I are ready for prime time!

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