Teeny Greens

This one feels a little like cheating.

I'm supposed to "grow something...a plant." As opposed to, you know, mold in the refrigerator or an inner root of bitterness about the infuriating layout of Shop Rite.

This is on the list because, generally speaking, I cannot do it. Ever. I can't keep a plant alive, much less grow one from scratch, or seed, or whatever. I've come to consider small potted plants I get from the grocery store to be the disposable equivalent of cut flowers. They only last a tiny bit longer around here. I know nothing about horticulture, and I'm way too scattered to remember to do things like water vegetation regularly. My children have an advantage over the plants in that they get noisy if they're not fed. The plants just sit quietly and resignedly and starve to death.

So I set out to try. I had a mini-greenhouse thing from a clearance sale at Lowe's several years ago. I was pretty sure the seeds were too old to grow, but I figured since I had the kit, I'd give it a shot.

It included basil, parsley, and dill seeds. Basil I love. Parsley is fine. Dill I really can't stand. Neither can Mark. In college we took a missions trip to Eastern Europe in which we were dilled to death all summer. So I tossed the dill seeds, planted two mini-pots with parsley and four with basil, and waited.

The parsley apparently had despaired of ever seeing soil and given up the ghost. It never appeared. Much to my surprise, however, the basil actually came up!

Here's the thing. I took the above picture on August 31, and the basil still looks pretty much like this today. I'm sure I need to transplant it. I even have a pretty green pot left over from Joy's cabbage plant that I killed. In theory I will move it, soon, into new digs (ha!) where I'm sure it will grow and flourish and make me into one of those people who is always chasing their friends around with big bags of basil saying, "Here! Take this. Make pesto or something." I love those people.

Right now, though, all I have is tiny little stunted seedlings. Still, they weren't there, and then they were, so I'm checking this off.

25 days to go...