What Do Chamomile Tea, Spinach Containers, Toilet Paper Rolls and Mason Jars Have in Common?

What do these things have in common? Well, they are all a part of my improvised, gleaned from Pinterest and work, what-can-I-dig-out-of-the-recycling method of gardening. 

Yes, gardening. 

It's true, I have trouble keeping house plants alive (even when those house plants are cacti and succulents...). But gardening has intrigued me for a while. Last year when I had considerably more time and space on my hands (and a much warmer climate!) I was thinking about, and even planning, a garden. Then, of course, I decided to go on an extended trip to Thailand and Laos with a friend during planting season, and that was that. 

This year, trying to escape a winter that won't end (more snow coming this week!), and working at a place that espouses the many benefits of urban gardening, I decided I'm going to give it a go. 

I signed up to receive free seeds and transplants from an organization called Denver Urban Gardens. At EarthLinks we collected the applications for our participants and dropped them off for them. Since I was the one to drop them off, I just filled one out myself. I mostly asked for transplants (thinking if the plants were already in adolescence when I got them I would have a better chance of keeping them alive). I was surprised though at what seeds I had ordered when I went back a couple months later to pick them up: 

Kale, cantaloup, and lettuce. Kind of random, but whatever. Making stuff up as I went along I decided to imbibe my seeds. (Not with alcohol mind you.) My supervisor had passed along an article about a gardener who tried soaking his seeds for a day or so and how they grew a lot faster. I figured, why not?

I poured half the packets into some random jars I had on my shelves. I planned on planting them the next day...but didn't get around to it. In my memory the article had said to soak them for 3-5 days. After  a couple of days I reread the article and realized, no, they said 12-24 hours. Oops. I figured I better get some stuff and get them planted soon...

After church I wandered around Lowes looking lost for organic potting soil and seed starting mix. I finally found what I hoped was the right stuff and hauled it out to my car, quite proud of myself (for no reason really). Then, I waited a couple more days...Finally on what seemed an appropriate evening (by which I mean there was a blizzard blowing outside), I sat at my desk in my pajamas with the spoon from my coffee cup, some toilet paper rolls, and the soil and got to work planting. 

At work participants usually carefully place three seeds in a triangle formation 1/4 of an inch into the dirt with tweezers (or something like that). My wet seeds were clumpy (and I soaked way too many) (seriously, how many kale plants was I going for?) so I just kinda spooned them in here and there. 

Making it up as we go along, folks.

The seeds all planted and cosy in their spinach container green house!

Then miracle of miracles, 2 and a half days later: 

A baby lettuce plant!

I really couldn't believe it! They were sprouting already. Two rows of happy little plants. It's so amazing and surprising that I keep forcing David and housemates (and anyone else I have any kind of sway over) to come look at them every day or so. It feels like magic. 

This is my little set up in the sun in one of our front rooms. I water them with a mason jar with holes punched in the top. I had seen someone water the seedlings at work this way--and seriously, it's mesmerizing how the water falls out of there in little lines as you shake it. I've also got a couple of tulips that were free give-aways, and a mason jar full of camomile tea. Apparently you can treat your seedlings for root rot (?) or something moldy sounding, by spraying them with camomile tea. I don't really understand that, but, again, why not? I couldn't find a spray bottle so I just squeeze the tea bag over the seedlings and sprinkle it on there. Good enough for me. 

Look at them go! I even have two little kale plants coming up now. Who knows what those cantaloupe seeds are doing under the soil (but honestly I didn't have much hope for them from the beginning). I did open my seeds the other day to find lots of fuzzy mold growing on the side of the TP rolls though. Hopefully that's not too bad of a thing. I've been leaving the lid off and giving them a good dose of chamomile--so we will see. Who knows how this experiment will turn out!

I have another batch of seedlings soaking in water (...for probably about a week now...): okra and bluebonnet seeds. It's my Texas batch. I'll hopefully get them in soil by the end of the weekend. But, we will see...

Anyway, that's my new little project. I felt a little hesitant about it in the beginning, but then I decided, hey if I kill them all--it's ok. Gotta take some risks, right? Even if it's just with free seeds. 

Finally, this week in workshop we used a TED talk for our "reflection" time. It's got me even more jazzed for gardening. We all enjoyed it, so I'll share it here too: 

Camino De Santiago: Day 19 Villar de Mazarife-Astorga

It took me a little while to pull myself out of my sleeping bag the morning of day 19. It was officially the coldest night of the Camino. I didn't realize it at the time, but the reason I had the dorm room to myself was because the side of the hostel I was on was the old part of the hostel...there was no heat. A high price to pay for no snoring. 

I really had no reason to hurry though. Every evening most pilgrims would get together and discuss the next day's trail. Any way I counted it, it looked like going all the way to Astorga was going to be 30 km or more (20 miles or so). I had sworn off those kind of long days once I hobbled my way into Leon, but Camino friend Juanma assured me that it was only 21 kilometers or so to Astorga. I was dubious, but then again, he had done a lot of research on the Camino and had been right on just about everything so far. So to Astorga it was!

I had a leisurely coffee with hostel owner Jesus and was on my way to what I was hoping would be a fairly short day. 

I passed lots of fields--stripped corn fields, and these, which I thought were potatoes, but turned out to be beets. 

I found a lost glove. It didn't belong to the ladies in front of me and we figured it was a biker long ahead of us. I decided to put it on top of my walking stick and see if its owner would turn up. A little bit later I was talking to a Korean girl when she looked over and said--that's my glove!

Snack time by the river (I was very careful not to let my bag/stick/self fall into the water!)

The trail got quite confusing around Hospital de Orbigo. There were lots of arrows pointing one direction and then other arrows that had been blacked out pointing down this way. One of the worst things you can do on the Camino is get lost. Walking extra kilometers is physically exhausting, but the mental pain you feel knowing you are wasting energy when you are so tired is acute. I stood around looking lost, unable to make up my mind over which path to take, when I noticed an official blue Camino sign far in the distance. 

Luckily this path took me right into Hospital and took me over their old bridge (considered a Camino must...even if it was under construction). The bridge was under construction, and, in places, it was just wide enough for one person. Because my ankle was bothering me so much, I was shuffling so slow that I had to stop and let old people hauling groceries pass me. I was gaining a growing appreciation for tortoises. 

I was out of town before I knew it. There weren't any cafes on that side of town and I was way too tired to double back into town and find one. I figured that if Astorga was indeed only 20 or so km from Villar de Mazarife I was getting close and could just eat there. (This of course, was a huge mistake.) I sat down on a bench outside an old ladies house. (She walked by and said hello. I was really hoping she would invite me in for lunch...but no such luck.) I dug in my bag--what did I have in there that I could eat for lunch? A tomato and a cereal bar.  

Outside of town I ran into this grandpa. He stopped and chatted with me for a long time. He had picked some daffodils to take to his wife. 

By this point in the day I was realizing that my dear friend Juanma was wrong about it being a short day.  I had already hiked more than 20km and Astorga was no where in sight. To distract myself/make myself feel better I resorted to kicking dandelions and whacking them with my stick as I walked. 

I was starting to go to the crazy place. 

By this point I had arrived to the crazy place. I was pulling out all the tricks I could think of--I put on my headphones and listened to upbeat/oldschool jams. I danced my way down the street (there was no one in sight anyway. Although, not like I cared at that point!). I was so hungry and thirsty and each step was shooting flaming arrows of pain through my ankle. 

I got to this point of the trail--shuffling across multiple lanes of traffic is scary!--and sat down at a shaded bus stop. I literally could not go another step. I stepped into problem solving mode and started digging through my pack. There must be something in here that I can do something with.

I found the athletic tape I had bought to bandage my blisters and channeled my inner athletic trainer. Playing basketball in high school I had my ankle taped all the time, so I tried to channel some of that and just started taping where it hurt. 

Surprise of surprises, it worked! It looked like a bad paper mâché project, but I could walk again!

And then, a few kilometers beyond that, I saw a mirage in the distance. I tried not to get my hopes up, but with a shout of joy I realized my eyes were indeed not fooling me--it was a GAS STATION. Have I ever been so happy to see a gas station? No. 

I must have been looking ROUGH because the guy there offered to find me a chair to sit in. I drank down a gatorade, had a stale ham sandwich and felt 72 times better. I still had a long way to go, but I finally felt like making it to Astorga was a possibility. 

Astorga! So close...yet still so far. 

We climbed over the bridge, circled in to town and then faced a ridiculous obstacle. We had to cross train tracks. We couldn't just walk over the tracks though. We had to climb up a giant set of stairs to a platform over the tracks and then climb directly back down on the other side of the track. Up two flights of stairs. Down two flights of stairs. So much energy need to go a whopping total of about 5 feet. 

Then, there was of course another large hill to climb to get into the city. There were a couple of grandpas sitting at the top of the hill kind of taunting us, telling us the hill wasn't that big. They had no idea what they were talking about!

Finally, finally to the lovely city of Astorga. 

The Albergue was beautiful though. I have a caretaker of severly handicapped men to thank for directing me here. I was planning on going to another hostel in town, but he was sitting outside with his patients and told me this was by far the best hostel in town. He was correct. 

I decided to take some more advice. I was finally ready to "thread"one of my blisters (you use a needle and thread to run a string through your blister and then you leave it in there so that it can drain and heal). It sounds barbaric and I resisted...up until a point. I told some of my pilgrim friends I was going to give it a go over dinner, and their response? Can we watch? Only on the Camino...

The view over Astorga. (I've never done laundry with a view like this!) And let me tell you, after such a long-hot-crazy-painful day it looked pretty sublime. 

Oh, and the total kilometer count for the day? 31.