Do you know how difficult it is to determine if a plant
growth is a weed or a flower after two weeks?
If you do not know, either you are a botantist or you've
never tried to plant seeds and watch them grow. I decided
about three weeks ago to plant three different types
of flowers, mainly because I never had before. I told
a friend I'm trying to teach myself patience. Watching
flowers grow takes patience to a completely different
level.
Sure, I have plenty of sprouts. But honestly, I have
no idea if any of them are flowers. Most look like weeds.
One looks just like Joan Rivers. I even repotted some
of the tallest foilage, attempting to grow the world's
largest weed perhaps.
As always, I've turned to the Internet to determine
what the heck I'm doing. It turns out there are photos
of flower types at many different stages on the Web.
The first type of flower I planted is a sunflower. I
envision, in a few years, having a field full of sunflowers
in which I can hide and jump out to startle people as
they walk by. Of course, I need to find a field to plant
and grow sunflowers, but still, I think it will be cool.
But before I do any of this, I'd like to at least grow
one. Right now, it's possible I have some sunflower
growth, considering sunflowers probably are considered
a type of weed. I think what I have so far looks like
picture, only not nearly as tall. You will notice
that picture is missing a crucial piece — the plant
bulb. I know I'm not going to get a bulb the day after
I plant (which goes back to that patience thing). I
just don't know if I'll be patient enough to wait until
it looks more like
this.
According to this
Ohio State University Extension Fact Sheet, sunflowers
are succeptible to weeds. So when I figure out what
is a weed and what isn't, I should probably clean up
my garden. Consider also that the length of my garden
is about the length of regular loaf of French bread,
it shouldn't take me too long to get it together.
The other two types of flowers I'm attempting to grow
are verbena and forget-me-nots. Again, I know what they
are supposed to look like, and by the pictures on the
package, I also know what the seedlings should look
like. But then I look into my French bread container
and wonder if any of the growing plants look anything
like the seedings I have created. I have seen some plants
that look similar to this
image, but I can't tell for certain. Full-grown
verbena looks nice, but seedlings aren't really that
pretty. At least none look like Joan Rivers.
So I'm pretty much stuck with two options: Either I
will try to figure out what I'm doing, or I will give
up and go back indoors. A third option would be to see
if I can grow barbecue-flavored sunflowers, but I understand
that's difficult. I found some other fertile Web sites
that could eventually help: National
Gardening and Midwest
Gardener. Both sites seem to have a lot of information
about — amazingly enough — gardening! Neither
site, though, made mention of flowers that look like
celebrities. Maybe I'll just have to start my own.
Another way to start a garden, or even add to it, is
just to buy bulbs. That way, you should be able to tell
the difference between a real plant and a plastic tree
that came with your model railroad set. Browse the list
of potential sellers of bulbs at bulb.com.
Order some you've never heard of and create your own
garden. If it works out, take pictures and send them
to me so I can pretend to have a garden. At this rate
and with zero patience, the only chance I have at creating
a garden is visiting the salad bar at Ponderosa.
Comments1
I'm not a pretender
Haha Ben - this is funny. So, how did your garden ever turn out? Let's talk in the spring. I love to grow things myself... maybe I can help you tell the weeds from the flowers.
And you know, you don't _have_ to start everything from seed!
Anyway - hope all is well,
Brad