Decktop Garden Adventure, day 1

Reasons to Love Nashville, #774

Saturday shouldn’t have been interesting. Had a tentative date that, of course, the guy backed out on. Hit a couple of garage sales and bought a perfect messenger bag for my scooter for only $30. At the farmers market i bought a giant bag of groceries, 8 pepper plants, 4 tomato plants and an oregano plant for less than $20.

And then I happened upon a garage sale.

The house was a classic Nashville brick ranch. The front part of the driveway was littered with deer heads, birdhouses and camping gear. But at the back of the driveway sat an older woman. She saw me pick up a flower pot (I was thinking I could plant one of my new pepper plants in it), and she said “Do you like plants” and I responded, “I am trying to.”

She lumbered up from her seat. Leaving her cane behind, the woman moved slowly, inching her way over to another pot and said, “Let me help you.”

Her 11 year-old grand daughter rolled her eyes. “Granny Sue has someone to talk about plants with,” she exclaimed. I asked if she liked plants and the young girl with pink streaks in her hair said a definitive “No.”

At this, 75 years of knowledge of gardening poured from the woman.

Brown bananas attract butterflies.

If you plant marigolds by tomatoes you won’t get any bugs

Take the last tomato of the year and just leave it on the dirt. It will seed itself for next season.

Planting 1 hot pepper underground by sweet potatoes will keep moles away

Tale after tale of how to keep your plants happy and healthy. I’d ask a question and Granny Sue would respond “just plant it.”

Does this need to be in the shade? “Just plant it.”

Don’t strawberries need to be in a yard? “Just plant it.”

Is this pot big enough? “Just plant it.”

She made clippings of geraniums, lambs ears, strawberries, sweet potatoes and assorted plants. She spoke stream of consciousness, “Keep these in water, and then, just plant them. If they look like they are dead, just keep watering them”

She then donated to my cause several planters that still had the remnants of dying looking plants in them. “Just add your tomato plants to these. They are plenty deep,” I think she could read my mind “and no, these other plants aren’t dead. Just water them. And plant the tomatoes. With some marigolds.”

I drove my car up behind the house, took the top off and loaded up my back seat with plants. She wished me luck and waved and said she wanted to come up and see my garden deck when it was in full bloom.

As I drove away, something hit me. Granny Sue said most of the time plants aren’t dead, they just need to be taken care of in a new way. Water them more. Water them less. Move them from direct sun to the shade. Replant them. Give them space.

That’s probably just like a lot of us. A few years ago, people might have written me off, where really I just needed to be replanted in a new space so I could thrive. Others who have fallen onto hard times or have made wrong decisions just need a little more water. Probably a lot of us could use days with more sun.

So I’ve started my deck-top gardening adventure with about 37 plants. I hope that maybe I can live my life with a few of Granny Sue’s lessons. Some of these plants may be meant for big gardens, but they will grow, and hopefully thrive where they are planted. There might be a few people in my life that I could offer some water.

I’ll keep you updated on the garden, but here’s what it looks like today.

Gardening 101

I’ve never been much of a gardener, but I enjoy believing that I, in fact, have that amazing gift where anything that I plant in the ground will grow into the most amazingly beautiful, large, colorful plant that anyone has seen.

This could be partially because I never have more than a window box or a few containers and brightly colored flower pots to make the horticulture attempt.  This year began with a few interesting looking flowers, some basil, sage and cilantro.  Much to my surprise, I learned that cilantro doesn’t particularly like the hot summers of Nashville, so that particular model died and fast, crispy death.

The sage followed suit, but I’m not sure what I was thinking planting sage in the summer, because I don’t really make anything during the summer that warrants sage as an ingredient.

(My dad is a teeny bit obsessed with cooking during the holidays, and he taught me how to make his age old, tried-and-true stuffing.  It starts the night before with the ceremonial drying of the bread, followed by a morning filled with chopping celery and onions, a heap of sage and lots and lots of butter.   Seriously, this sage stuffing can kick your stuffing’s ass…just being honest.)

At some point during the summer, I was at the Home Depot and noticed a sale on a few plants.  One being some sort of a vine-like plant with purple flowers that appeared to have had a hard childhood.   My nurturing nature was in full gear and I bought the little plant for $3, bound and determined to bring it back to it’s glorious early self.  I wanted it to awaken its little plant soul and have it become confident enough to explode into a wave of color.

Well, it didn’t.

I need to give my little porchmate credit – I travel a lot.  I don’t really know how to do things like “pruning” and I’m a little bit sketchy on the “watering” part as well.

A few other plants have died and started over on their own, and often I think that I should replant them in a larger container – the obvious choice being the home of this purple plant.

However I just can’t bring myself to do it, for even in it’s dried out desert, there is still little glimmers of life.  Take today for example.  Amidst all of the branches that have been dormant all summer, consistently there are one or two beautiful, colorful blooms that adorn my porch.  And these little glimpses are just enough to make me want to cheer on that little plant just a week or two longer.

exhibit a.

Maybe I can just relate.  Maybe this plant is showing me that there is always hope, always life in the world around me.    No matter how dire the situation, there’s always the chance to see life start anew.

No matter how messed up someone’s life may seem, I am still required to look for the best, to cheer on the positive in their lives.

Maybe it’s a show that even a little bit of color can change your whole outlook.

Maybe this is a reminder to me of days past where I felt like my situation was broken and beyond the help of God, but in the end, his promises are always honest, and his mercy is great.

Maybe it’s a metaphor for the state of our world today, a reminder of the positive work that is happening when it comes to the world’s atrocities like genocide and trafficking.

Or maybe it’s just proof that I’m simply a really bad gardener and this makes me feel better about not fostering this poor plant out to some loving, green thumber at a local plant rescue.

No matter what, I’m still keeping the plant, and maybe giving it a little more attention, some plant food and some extra love.    Maybe over the next few days I’ll see a few people or situations that look a little like this plant as well, and I’ll take the time to give them a little nurturing as well.