Sweetpea’s Garden

Because it is safe for sensitive populations. Clearly, I am not trying hard enough.

Tip of the hat to Ms. P and Roon, both of whom beat me to this.

Are always seen in public places.”

So goes an adage I often heard growing up, mostly from my grandparents. It came in response to things such as my childish desire to sign every guest book I came across, though there must have been other circumstances as well, because I still retain a vague discomfort with notoriety. Been known seems, well, unseemly.

I’ve come to the realization recently that I’ve carried this unease with me into the Interwebs, and have what might best be called a love-hate relationship with having a traceable presence online. For example:

• LOVE: I was thrilled to discover that an article I wrote is cited as a source for a Wikipedia listing. (I am a footnote! Whee!)
• HATE: It took nearly three months of writing on this blog for me to finally click the button in WordPress that allows search engines to crawl my pages.
• LOVE: I have both a Facebook page and a LinkedIn profile, both of which use my name, yet (HATE) neither offer a link to this blog .
• HATE: I started this blog primarily as a device for keeping in touch with family and friends, yet I have sent the URL to only a dozen or so people.

Random examples, sure, but it all comes back to one thing: why can’t I connect my name with my thoughts online? In a professional capacity, I have been doing this for a long time. But personally, the fear of foolishness looms large.

Why?

Mine is growing faster than my ability to write about it, clearly. So here’s a look my attempts thus far at being an urban farm girl with just a small second-floor porch at my disposal.

I did all my planting the second weekend of May and snapped a picture so I could write a post describing my starting point. I never did write it, but here’s the photo, anyway:

I’m growing more flowers than usual this year and have several boxes of mixed impatiens as well as a hanging basket of petunias. As always, I’ve planted a ton of herbs, since they grow well in pots. This year’s selections include four varieties of basil, lemongrass, mint, oregano, and thyme. Here’s a photo from last week of the progress of the flowers and herbs in the first picture:

Because of the limited space, I never get to plant as many vegetables as I’ d like, but I do have some peppers (cayenne) and tomatoes (grape and Roma) that seem to be doing well. I’ve always had bad luck with tomatoes, but for once they seem to be thriving. Which I have now just jinxed, of course. Here’s a picture of those, too, since I know you’re dying to see one:

There hasn’t been much to harvest to date, but I have pulled of some mint for a few mighty-fine tasting mojitos. I’ll try to remember to post more as I start eating the things I am growing.