It's like Ohmigod!

You can say many things about me. I possess many talents. Gardening, however, is not one of them. In fact I'm spectacularly bad at it. Since moving to Kansas City, you might say that I have a one way relationship with potted plants and cuttings, one of virtually assured destruction.

My only briefly successful foray into the growing world was the Aerogarden escapades of this past spring/summer. And I have to say it was kind of cheating. It was grow lights, water, prepackaged seed pods and food pellets.

Last weekend Wes and I decided to try our hand at growing again. We spent a little while at Home Depot pondering our options and ended up with a Burpee Grow Kit. The kit comes with a plastic tray, a watering system (reservoir and absorbent mat), and some "magic" dirt pellets (they expand when you add water). At the end of the evening our newest project looked like this:


We planted a variety of vegetables and herbs. From our previous experience we expected the herbs to sprout within a 7-10 days and be ready for harvesting and transfer within 4-6 weeks. From reading the vegetable packets, we expected our plants to be transferable in about 6 weeks and mature in 60-90 days. We reasoned that this would be at earliest, March, and at lastest April, perfectly warm.

A mere 6 days later, this is what we have:


Those there on the left are the BEANS OF DOOM with root systems already OUTSIDE the plastic tray. In the middle you can see a melange of tomatoes, cucumbers, carrots and onions. Those big sprouts on the right are the broccoli.

Not much action from the herb section:


Apparently the hubs and I are genius gardeners huh? We're also in SERIOUS trouble.

Mary Mary Quite Contrary

Our garden seems to be growing! We can already smell the basil (the big green and purplish plans) and the chives. The only one that hasn't grown too much yet is the parsley (that's still domed). I can't wait to harvest though, because every now and then I get wafts of wonderful herb goodness.


It's also evident that spring has sprung here. Everywhere trees are full of beautiful blossoms (whites and pinks and reds and yellows), tulips edge lawns all over the city, and it has rained most days a little bit, despite being in the 60s and 70s. Wes and I have recently decided to exercise together (he gets the credit for the idea, and for pushing me to do it) so now we go walking together a few times a week. Our complex is right next to a golf course and a pretty park area and there are some 15+ miles of walking paths. So far we've only conquered about 1.5 miles of it (that's a good 3 mile walk out and back), and it's really peaceful wandering among trees and lawns and furry little creatures, even if there are adjacent homes and golf carts sometimes. There's a pond and several ducks right near our house, a creek that runs through the area and tons to see and photograph (especially for practice!) All that makes the exercise go quickly. What more could I ask for?