03 17 00

all things green

Aye, 'tis Saint Patty's Day, and time for the wearing of the green, it 'tis. Arrghh.

Um. That came out a bit more pirate-y than I expected. Sorry.

I don't know what it's like in other parts of the world, but in my neck of the woods St. Patrick's Day is a Big Deal. We have a fairly large Irish community (people who are Irish all year round, that is). Of course, we also have lots of college students. When the bars are open at 6am for drinking green beer, the students come out in droves. They drink all day and all night. And the next morning, the sidewalks are decorated with festive green puke. Around here, St. Pat's has the highest number of alcohol poisoning cases and the highest number of alcohol-related arrests all year.

Now, I'm not anti-alcohol or anything. In fact, I love to settle down on the couch with a friend or two and a beer. And, on occasion, I've gotten a bit drunk. But I've seen too many of my friends get totally wasted just because they think it's cool. They drink beer after beer after mixed drink after beer, proving how macho or sexy they are. (Whatever.) And then they feel like shit the next morning. Yet, they still don't learn. I have better things to spend my money on, thank you.

Ok, end of rant.

Other Green Stuff

I was terrible with plants. I've gotten better. It used to be that when plants saw me coming, they turned brown and died on the spot just to keep me from doing anything to them.

Now that I'm out on my own my thumb has turned just slightly green. (Barely. Most of it's still black.) I do much better with plants that are outdoors than I do with indoor plants.

Way back when, Sammy gave me a jade plant. It was a tiny little thing, just a cutting from one of her mom's plants. I was living in the basement apartment at the time, and I feared for the plant's life. I would sit it in the sunniest window I had (being underground and all) and hoped for the best.

It almost died a few times. It would put out a new, fat and thick leaf, and then begin to whither. Then I would smother it with attention, making sure its soil was just moist enough, that it was getting just enough sun. It would perk up a bit, put out another leaf, and the cycle would begin again.

About two years ago, I put the jade plant outside. It looked pathetic. It was all shriveled and sickly looking. In fact, I put it outside so that it could live out the rest of its short life "in the wild." But - surprise surprise - the plant thrived. In fact, I've had to repot it twice since then. It's been in and outdoors, since it can't take the winter chill, and still it grows. I might have to repot it again this summer. I have no idea why it's doing so well now. I suspect that it merely had to get over its awkward teen years.

The green leafy plant I bought a year ago did not fare as well. I don't know what it was, but the plant guy called it a "dorm proof" plant. Unkillable.

Hah. I showed them! The plant is quite dead.

This summer I'll repeat the successful experiment I did last year. I have a patio, but no dirt. (Well, I do have dirt, but its full of pine tree and ivy.) I wanted to grow veggies. I wanted to grow veggies bad. So I bought a few large pots, some seedlings, and got to work. My two choices were tomatoes and cucumbers. Both are easy and hardy, right?

My dad laughed at me. "You can't grow cucumbers in a pot," he said. "The tomato plant will do fine, but the cucumber will just die. They need room to root."

I was determined to prove him wrong.

When the cucumber started draping over the side of the pot, I realized I had a problem. I didn't want the cukes growing on the cement, because that would just invite rot and slugs and other nasty garden things. So I came up with an ingenious idea. (I later discovered that it wasn't that ingenious. In fact, people do it all the time. But I came up with it myself so I think it was a pretty damn good idea.) I bought a tomato cage, wired the cucumber stalks to the cake, and slowly convinced the plant to grow up the cage.

It worked! I had a nice drapery of cucumber over my patio wall by the middle of summer. I got some really yummy cukes from the plant, too. This year I'm planning to grow cucumbers and beans. I think I want snap peas, but I'm not sure.

Wish me luck!

______ of the Day

Weblog