New Life

About a week and a half ago I planted some impatiens from seed in a large clay pot on my front porch. This pot was given to me by the students in the second grade class I student taught six years ago. Of course I killed the original plant they potted - but that was before I turned over my new leaf, pun intended. Forgive its faded and chipped paint - sentimentally, it's beautiful.

I've blindly gone about watering, not really knowing if I was drowning it, washing out the seeds, or if I had even planted the seeds correctly, with too little or too much dirt covering. Did I mention yet that I'm winging this stuff?

Yesterday, while out inspecting my recently planted assorted containers, I casually glanced at my pink pot to find this:

Life! It lives! All together I counted 11 sprouts. Let's see if I can manage not to kill them.

~The Kinder-Gardener

Name That Plant

I was planning to do a post today called "Name That Plant", mostly because I bought an unidentified plant earlier this week. I did lots of searching, found things that were close to this plant, but were not exact matches. So, I was going to implore you, my (possibly non-existent) readers, to help me put a name to this foliage.

But thanks to Flickr, I did finally find it just moments ago. It is a Hypoestes, commonly known as the Polka Dot Plant. I think it is traditionally an indoor plant that also sometimes doubles as flower-bed cover or border. For now, mine is potted outside, but if I get to reading and realize that will be its death sentence, I might relocate it to my kitchen window. The leaves are so striking with their dappling of hot pink against the dark green. It is natively a tropical plant, and it definitely has that look about it.

~The Kinder-Gardener

The curse of my black thumb...

Even optimism may not be enough to save my tomato plant from certain death. {Okay, so I'm dramatizing a little, but it probably isn't far from the truth.}

I planted a Topsy-Turvy Tomato two weeks ago. I conceived the idea for this blog, at least as it appears, during this process, but unfortunately too late to archive the planting in pictures as I've done with subsequent plants. I have, though, been taking pictures every few days to show progress, and I'll share those (as well as my latest plantings) in another post.

As if I haven't already provided sufficient disclaimers about my minimal knowledge and experience as a gardener, I'll remind you again - I have no idea what I'm doing. I'm totally winging it.

I noticed today as I was out watering that my tomato plant is starting to look sickly. This inspired me to do two things. First, I began trying to research on the web about sick tomato plants. Second, I am now thinking about a way to incorporate a plant-diagnosis element to my blog. I envision being able to post a picture of my sick plants and having readers offer their diagnoses and opinions about what I should do to heal or save the poor plant who had the misfortune of being adopted by me and my black thumb. Likewise, I'd invite you to post your sick-plant pics. Imagine a little plant infirmary.

Well, for now, I don't have that kind of thing up and running officially, but I'll throw my sick mater plant pics out there and if anyone's lurking, I welcome {read:beg} your advice. From my initial research, I'm thinking it's over-watering, or viral/fungal, or a combination of the two. And, please try to refrain from calling Plant Welfare Services to report me. It's my first (documented) offense.

~ The Kinder-Gardener

What's that buzzing sound?

Ah yes, it's all my thoughts, ideas and plans for this blog swirling and swarming, yet never getting planted. This is one way that my personality type really gets in my way. I can almost always come up with good ideas, but I get hung up on the organization and execution. I realize I launched my blog five days ago and activity since then appears to be non-existent. In actuality, I have made a couple of minor aesthetic changes, but that "new post" button is just too scary. My alias is Anal-Annie, and I demand order - linear, neat, methodical order. What if I start going in one direction and decide two weeks later I should have done it another way? {Normal people would answer this with an effective "so what?" Note: I am not normal.}

Basically, what I'm trying to say is I really am blogging about my gardening. So far, though, it's all in my head.

~ The Kinder-Gardener

Hello - Is There Anyone Out There?

Well, I've been tossing around the idea of blogging about my gardening (mis)adventures for several weeks. I have a few ideas, but will have to see how it pans out.

Is there a 12-step program for people with black-thumbs? I suppose the first step is admitting my problem(s). I have never been able to maintain the life of a plant. I actually have very little experience with gardening of any kind (indoor or out) but I'm afraid you won't have needed me to establish that - it will be quite obvious. I HATE most bugs, but specifically those bugs which I (affectionately) call "buzzy things." Bees, wasps, hornets, and anything else that makes a buzzing sound as it passes near my head. I'm the grown woman you see running and shrieking when one enters my personal space... or sometimes just my peripheral vision.

But, despite these handicaps, I'm determined to be a gardener.
~ The Kinder-Gardener