Me & My Garden

A while ago, I wrote a column about the gardens that my brother, cousin, and I were trying to grow. Now, I figure it's high time for an update.

I started all of my seedlings a good distance from Waitsburg's average date of last frost, April 27. Eventually, I had produced two cherry tomato plants - a bonus, since I only needed to plant one. Three of my four pepper seeds sprouted - good, as that was the exact number I needed to plant. I sowed a couple rows of carrots on April 6, hoping against hope that they would grow as well as the stubborn clumps of grass that had sprung up in the garden bed.

After the seedlings outgrew their small starter pots, I transplanted them into larger bins filled with a homemade mixture of peat moss, vermiculite, and chicken droppings (hey, they're high in nitrogen!). I placed the plants in these and began 'hardening them off', or placing them outside to get them used to the wind and cold. When it came time to transplant the seedlings into the ground itself, none of them looked too good. The pepper plants looked no bigger than when I had placed them in the larger pots. My taller tomato seedling's leaves were turning yellow - first the small pair at the base that is supposed to fall off eventually anyhow, and then the other leaves.My shorter tomato plant, on the other hand, looked much healthier but was only half an inch high.

Meanwhile, I had neglected my carrots and not a single green sprout was to be seen in my garden bed. The grass, on the other hand, was as obnoxious as ever.

So I planted all of the seedlings in their assigned places in the garden, watered them generously, re-planted the carrots, and hoped for the best.

My pepper plants lasted less than forty-eight hours. I let my chickens out into the yard, and about thirty minutes after doing so I observed one of my hens standing innocuously next to the green stumps that were formerly my Yum Yum Gold sweet bells.

" Mercy!" I groaned. "Why?"

(For the record, 'Mercy' was not an expression of my frustration, but rather the name of the hen that inspired it.)

And less than a week later, a freak freeze killed my tomato plant, which was on its last pair of leaves anyhow.

So I did what I could: I planted the smaller tomato plant. It still hasn't grown much, but it isn't quite dead. Yet.

And finally, thankfully, I have a carrot growing. One beautiful little green sprig.

I started two cantaloupe plants about two weeks ago. They are currently each about eight inches long, growing half an inch a day and showing no sign of slowing down. I took the opportunity to start another pepper plant, which I intend to raise to maturity.

Meanwhile, my brother's bean seedlings are already in the ground, and my cousin has apparently met with wild success in all her horticultural endeavors, which may have something to do with the fact that frost is not a problem where she lives.

But by hook or by crook, I will raise a garden this year - and no pressure front, fungal blight or hungry hen shall stop me in my quest.