Sunday, May 3, 2009

Meet Harold and the Kids

I've picked up a new and very grandma-like hobby. I just can't seem to help myself. By the time I become an actual senior citizen I will be the best and most prepared for all of the post-retirement hobbies, a winner for sure.

The new one on the list is gardening. I was afraid that I would get tired of it or quit before the seeds were even in the ground. But I got inspired. Watch out world, here I come! The work was difficult. I had to dig up and replant the sod I moved to start my garden, which proved to be a rough start. Picking out the seeds was the most fun. I bought my own purple garden gloves. I worked the soil, added fertilizer, and planted the seeds. My mom helped since I was such a newby to the gardening world. We edged my newly formed bed and waited...

The garden is ready.

Every afternoon I would faithfully water the ground just hoping for all my hard work to produce something beautiful. I really didn't know what to expect. I didn't want to get my hopes up too much. Was I watering too much or too little? Was the soil good enough? Maybe I should have bought one more bag of cow poo.(Why isn't this stuff free? Does other poo work the same? I have a lot more questions about this suspicious plant growing stuff.)
After a week of patiently waiting and hoping, a beautiful thing happened. I went out for daily water duty and bam! GREEN! After staring at the ground in utter amazement rather closely and holding my breath a little bit, I ran inside and yelled to my mom, "I've got babies!!"
Those teeny tiny little sprouts brought me more joy than I could have ever imagined. By the next day 10 baby plants turned into 20. And they are growing and growing. I love it. I love it!
Now I don't want to offend anyone. To each his own. But I think gnomes and other garden statues and decorations are tacky and slightly humorous. Not pretty. Not neat. So, I was in Target the other day, and being the thrifty girl that I am, I headed straight for the dollar spot. And right now they have all of this garden stuff which screamed my name. Yes, it did. That's where I met Harold and knew right away that he would make a great addition to my little garden family. Harold is a 3 inch tall garden gnome, kinda like a leprechaun gnome. He fits right in. My family is complete.
They have gotten a little bigger now, but these are some of my first pictures of them.
First Sprouts

A little bigger
Harold