Back in January and February, I meticulously planned the Grow With Me Project.
In March and April, I recruited participants and encouraged people to literally grow with me…which also meant growing together—with your mother, your neighbor, your Girl Scout troop, your grandkids…whoever wanted to plant something.
The project officially began in May.
And that’s when I promptly failed to follow my own advice.
May Goals
May was all about gathering supplies. You didn’t need much—a patio pot, some potting soil, and maybe a few popsicle sticks to mark where you planted each type of seed.
I even included a “Pro Tip” in the booklet:
Cover your pot with chicken wire or some type of screening to keep the squirrels from digging.
Solid advice.
Advice that I completely ignored.
I don’t know…I was busy. I was tired. Every time I walked past my pot, I thought, I’ll grab the screening from the basement later.
Later never came.
Just when my little seedlings were looking healthy, I think there was some sort of backyard wildlife party. Blue jays, squirrels…maybe a chipmunk or two. Whatever happened, it wasn’t pretty.
Disaster.
But I stayed calm. I laughed at myself, reminded myself there was still plenty of time, replanted the pot, and started again.
Sometimes gardening is simply learning that tomorrow is another planting day.
June Goals
June’s lesson was all about thinning your seedlings.
Once several plants emerge, a patio pot can only support so much. I encouraged everyone to snip off the weaker seedlings with scissors or pinch them off right at the soil line.
I even warned you…
It’s surprisingly hard to “kill” a healthy little seedling. Once it pokes its head through the soil and reaches the sunlight, it somehow feels like it’s yours forever.
Apparently I was giving myself advice.
Once again, I was “too busy.”
“I’ll thin them tomorrow.”
Tomorrow became June 30th.
I made the cutoff.
(The cutoff…get it?)
And I still didn’t follow directions.
Instead of thinning them, I carefully transplanted five Teddy Bear sunflower seedlings into their own patio pot. I almost planted them in the garden, but then I remembered that baby sunflowers are basically rabbit candy around here. Unless I cover them again, I’d just be serving lunch to the local bunny population.
The Thai basil wasn’t much different.
Those tiny little seeds multiplied like the proverbial rabbits.
Instead of choosing the strongest two or three plants, I ended up making one…okay, maybe two…extra pots of basil because I simply couldn’t bring myself to throw the seedlings away.
What I’ve Learned
Here’s the funny part.
I may not have followed every carefully organized instruction that I wrote for everyone else…
…but I’m having fun.
Without the Grow With Me Project, I’m not sure I would have replanted after the squirrels’ attack. I probably would have shrugged, declared the season a failure, and moved on to the next project.
Instead, I started over.
Maybe that’s the biggest lesson of all.
Gardening isn’t about doing everything perfectly. It’s one long experiment. Every season teaches us something, every mistake becomes next year’s tip, and every success makes us a little more confident.
Maybe cultivating a green thumb has less to do with knowing exactly what you’re doing and more to do with simply refusing to give up.
July Goals
July is all about patience.
Watching.
Waiting.
Learning to “listen” to what your plants need.
A little more water.
A little more sunlight.
Maybe a little more space.
And every now and then, taking a moment to rub a basil leaf between your fingers and appreciate just how incredibly fragrant such a tiny little plant can be.
I’ll be good in July.
I promise.
(But if I accidentally ignore my own instructions again…well…I guess there will be another update.)
