My Garden

I have this friend, Siet.  She is one of the most fascinating people ever.  We've been friends since we were 11 years old but have lead very different lives.  She's a farmer living in Colorado, building a tiny house to live in while she and her wife Jenny work on constructing an earthship.  I am pretty consistently amazing by the process of realizing dreams.  This is generally true of me and magnified by the experiences of my friend Siet.

When we moved into our new home Siet and Jenny sent a care package.  Inside I found these.

Unfortunately, for every living thing outside of my children that I had ever tried to cultivate in any of my 35 years (including some small animals- mostly fish), pretty much everything that I touch dies.

I swear to God, even that avocado seed that I have been trying to grow for YEARS only sprouted a root while I was away on vacation for a week.  It probably sounds crazy and paranoid to think that my very presence to could kill living things, but I swear it is the truth.

On a separate but related note, my husband is convinced that I have a technology killing super power.  Not in a way that makes technology difficult to use, but in a way that makes it possible for me to control the touch screen on my iPhone from six inches away.  Or, by killing the microwave.  Or my iPod displaying all of our music upside down and backwards.  Or, a stereo in the car of a friend that has not worked in years suddenly begins working when he picks me up from the airport and suddenly stops working after he drops me off at the airport.  You know... weird stuff.  My husband think that there's a normal scientific explanation.  He thinks that my body works on the same frequency as many electronics and interfere with them.

But I can't help but wonder if the same things inside of me that kills electronics also kills plants.

That said, we moved into this house that has gorgeous, well established landscaping.   I have been sincerely enjoying weeding and pruning and clipping flowers to make bouquets.  I enjoy the fruit that we grow and the blooming of all of the plants and the little baby succulents sprouting from their mamas.  My black thumb made of lead has just a hint of green... and I have these seeds.  Siet gave me some great instructions...

...so, yesterday, with fear in my heart and the lives of much vegetation at my fingertips, I planted squash and California poppy's.

Hopefully, they'll be sprouting up and thriving in this space.

I don't hold a whole lot of hope, but I will follow the instructions and do my best to see them grow into healthy, prolific, food baring crops.

Today, I will plant cardinal climbers.  The seeds had to be soaked for 24 hours before planting, and I needed to find the perfect place for them.  I am going to pot them next to our outdoor fireplace so that they can climb up the side!

I have this bed next to my front door that gets no sunlight and I am wondering what I can possibly plant here.  Are there plants that don't use sunlight?  It seems as though something must have grown there at some point.  But, what?