As we celebrate the first day of
autumn I am faced with figuring out how my Miracle Garden fared. If you’ve read
some of my rants you must have figured out by now that my wife and I really
don’t have much of a green thumb.
Black would more like it.
This year for the Miracle Garden, we decided to plant seeds from
scratch. We thought that we could
get some fantastic softball sized, succulent tomatoes and torpedo shaped
cucumbers.
We decided to get an early start
this year, so in February we went to the Comstock-Ferre seed store to browse
the seed offerings. If you like
gardening, this is the place. It’s
an historic building in the heart of Old Wethersfield. Creaky floors, dusty tables, and
cubbies filled with dozens of varieties of every fruit and vegetable imaginable. We got a few varieties of tomatoes and
cucumbers and promptly misplaced the packets. It was April when we resurfaced. We procrastinated for a while longer and then finally
planted them in peat pots. A few
days later the plants began to sprout.
This was a good sign. As
soon as any danger of frost passed, we planted them in the Miracle Garden. We even set up a soaker hose to make
sure that these babies got enough water.
Sun was no problem due to the great weather we were having. I had so many sprouts that I gave the
extras to my niece and nephew.
More on that later.
May comes and the plants are sort
of growing. Sort of growing means
that they were not dying, which is a good thing. We continued to water and let the sun shine away. The cukes slithered their way along the
ground spreading their tendrils.
The tomato plants grew tall.
One of them was four feet tall.
The only thing lacking was any actual flowers that would turn into
vegetables. None! My neighbor was harvesting vegetables as
if there was no tomorrow. I think
he was canning sauce. My four-foot plant finally produced a tomato. Yes, a tomato as in one. It was about the size of a marble. Or a
pea. Or something in between. Also, some yellow sort of vegetable that
could have been a cucumber was growing.
I wasn’t entirely sure because I’ve never really seen a yellow
cucumber. The chipmunks were kind
enough to plant sunflower seeds and we had an abundance of those. Some weeds added a nice, lush look to
the garden as well.
When I mentioned to my niece and
nephew that the Miracle Garden struck out again for the second time, they
looked at me with astonishment.
The plants that I had given them were producing so many tomatoes and
cucumbers they were exporting the excess to third world countries. They couldn’t believe that I only had a
pea or marble sized tomato and a yellow vegetable-looking thing. My nephew snidely asked if I had added
some fertilizer to the Miracle Garden.
Well, I’m sure you know the answer to that. Ah...no.
So this year I only spent $7.49
for a pea or marble sized tomato and a yellow maybe cucumber. The sunflowers and weeds were
free. I think I got off cheap this
year.
