25 April 2009

Gardening Anxiety; Planting Strawberries

I'm experiencing a bit of gardening anxiety this week. None of my seeds seem to be sprouting. Tomatoes, peppers, green onions, green beans -- all the seeds are taking a nap under the dirt. I'm even thinking about buying plants -- gasp!! Not that there is anything wrong with buying plants from the local nursery, but I enjoy starting at the beginning.

Maybe the seeds seem to be taking too long to sprout because I am more focused on the garden this time around. Last year, I had a very laid-back attitude. I threw the seeds out there and didn't worry too much about what happened. There seems to be more pressure this year. The kids are already looking forward to the tomatoes and green beans. My neighbor LJ keeps talking how everything I plant grows like crazy. ABM even showed his faith in my gardening abilities by getting me some new hand tools (no more tablespoons!). I know that God is ultimately in control of my garden, but I know I will feel like a failure if I don't get a good harvest this year.

This negative mindset is part of what makes me shy away from other things that I want to try like writing a novel or sewing a quilt. If I keep this up, I will just give up on everything I already planted and then ABM will be justified in saying, "I knew you wouldn't stick with this." I've got to snap out of it!

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There is some positive news from my garden patch. The strawberry plants I ordered from Park Seed look promising. I planted them in grow bags and the plants in the first bag are showing leaves. If you have ever ordered strawberry plants via mail order, you know that they look pretty sad:

PictureMail

They are all clumped together and look like a sea creature that's been caught and dredged in dust. When I separated them and put them in the grow bag, they looked like miniature tree stumps. It is remarkable to me that anything green came out of them. I guess I haven't totally lost my green thumb.

3 comments:

Hailey @ Me and My Boys said...

We were one of the ones that went ahead and bought the plants. I don't think I can handle the pressure either. haha Now I'm panicking, because my cilantro leaves started turning brown, even though they need full sun. LJ must have way more confidence than I do, because I'm so nervous I'll end up killing it all somehow! haha

Happy Gardening!

Dani In NC said...

Hailey, I didn't have good luck with cilantro last year so I didn't even bother planting it this year.

As for confidence, LJ is even more antsy about her garden than I am :-). She has a lot more issues to contend with in her yard as far as problems with the soil and trying to get enough sun, so my garden did a little better than hers last year. I think she will beat me this year, though, because she did a lot more research over the winter. I'm still throwing my seeds out and praying!

Mary said...

I just read your post from 2007 regarding Stephanie Mills on Wonderama. I did a search because my brother just happened to go see that show one time and it was that one. I think Michael Jackon was also on it. Anyway, I thought it was funny because you were searching 2 years ago for what I was searching for tonight.