The Greening of My Thumb

HAPPY EARTH WEEK!!

This is Phil.

I often joke around that I have a blue thumb. I want to be a good gardener and  friend to plant life everywhere, but the facts are the facts. 

This year, while on my search for sustenance I have also been trying to "green my thumb". I kept a basil plant in the kitchen, bought two ivy plants, a mini money tree (I can hope!) and a lovely plant I call "Phil" (he's awesome and he's a philodendron!).

So far, although there were some ups and downs, I think I have done pretty well based on my own history. Phil and one of the ivy plants nearly doubled in size since coming home. Money tree had a rough winter, but we came through it. The other ivy plant had to be cut all the way down to nothing and is slowly coming back with three little sprigs of life. The fact of the matter is - for the first time in my life all the plants are at least still alive.

It is with this great leap of progress that I felt it was time to take a giant leap (of faith??) forward:

Yesterday I embarked upon: My First Food Planting!

OK, OK, it is not a full-on vegetable garden.

It is not even a vegetable plant.

Well, let's face it... it's not even a plant yet.

Yesterday, I set out to plant my first seeds with great anticipation that later on this summer I will be able to harvest some SEEDS! It is actually quite hilarious when you think about it... Why didn't I just break into my seed packet right there and start noshing away?

I'll tell you why! Because in the amount of seeds I am going to yield from just one of those seeds will astound you! The magic seeds I planted yesterday were sunflower seeds!

I hope I followed the directions correctly, because sunflowers are just about the most fun flower there is and their seeds are a pivotal part of my favorite trail mix.

Nicole's Favorite Trail Mix: almonds, sunflower seeds, dried cranberries and dried blueberries (if you only have one kind of dried berry, that's OK, too!).

I didn't have a ton of space to devote to my sunflowers since I am saving space for some vegetable plants I am saving up my pennies for this week, so I only planted 10 or 11 seeds in front of my shed. If they all sprout up, it will look pretty amazing (even though it might freak out my dogs!).

I was reading about sunflowers in my favorite new book today, The Backyard Homestead and I learned of other fantastic things I could do with them if I didn't want to wait around for the seeds. Perhaps you too, will be enlightened of other ways you can enjoy sunflowers in your kitchen while watching them grow in your garden. Did you know that you could eat the immature buds? Or, if you would prefer to see the big flowers, you could wait for them and put their petals in a salad or a soup? I had no idea! Now I don't know what I am going to do!

The one good thing is - I have time on my side. I can mull it over as I watch my beauties grow, because right now there is nothing more that a truly odd-looking rectangle of soil dug into in front of my shed.

According to my seed packet, if I have done everything correctly and if I treat them right between now and then, I should see seedlings in 7-14 days.

...I am very nervous about this. (I asked Phil to say a prayer for them!)

Any tips for this blue-thumbed gardener? 

Any ideas of what I should do with the sunflowers?

For other sunflower growers out there - do you keep them for yourself or share them with the birds and the squirrels??

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