A Weird Hillbilly's Garden

[Ninurta]

So far I have bush cucumbers, mammoth sunflowers, marigolds and some green beans sprouting out of 14 different kinds of seeds planted. My bedding plants are doing okay so far, some better than others. Lettuce and lemon balm are doing the best!

Several years ago when I was  young man, I was rambling around one spring looking for wild greens, and about half way up a mountain I found a clearing in the woods, and in the middle of that clearing was an odd plant I had never seen before. it was odd because I thought I had seen it before, but not quite. Then it dawned on me that it looked almost exactly like catnip which grew there in abundance, but was the wrong shade of green - it was a much lighter green that it ought to be for catnip.

Curious and perplexed, and thinking maybe it just wasn't getting enough sun in that clearing, I went to examine it more closely. Now catnip has a very distinctive smell when you pick a leaf and shred it, so that's just what I did to see if it was just a sickly catnip plant or not. Imagine my surprise when the scent that assailed my nose smelled just like a lemon! It wasn't even that it wasn't catnip-y, but that strong scent of lemon growing wild in these mountains threw me.

I think that may have been Lemon Balm or Verbena, although I can't be sure. I've never seen it anywhere else to confirm the identification. That one, single, lonely plant out in the middle of nowhere is the only time I've ever encountered it in all my ramblings.

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Two days ago, I saw my first lady bugs of the year. Yesterday I saw the first dandelion in bloom. Leaf buds have not yet appeared on the trees, but spring is on it's way nonetheless.

A couple days ago, mild tragedy struck. I've been setting my little plantation outside during the day to take advantage of what sun comes. That day was a windy day, and on windy days I have a little weight that I set on top of the clear cover to keep the wind from blowing it off, but the wind that day was a little stouter than I had estimated, and at some point the wind blew the weight off, and then it blew the clear cover off, exposing the seedlings to the ravages of the elements. wind blew several of them over, just bent 'em to slap the dirt and stay down. Looked like the results of a miniature cyclone in a miniature forest.

It didn't get all of them, and the blown over plants haven't died yet, but it's clear that only the strong survive around these parts!

I have since developed a different system - I put a couple of pieces of scotch tape on the lid to clamp it down to the tray now before I set it out. That seems to be working so far.

It's depressing that nothing but the tobacco has sprouted so far. the tobacco - both varieties - is thriving like weeds other than the blown over weaklings, but still nothing else.

I'll give it another week or two before I go ahead and order my all-white Tobacco Baron suit.


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