From Failed Flowers to Flourishing Fauna

 

   I've said it before and I will say it again, I am a plant murderer. I don't have a green thumb, I have a poisonous index finger. I can take a healthy plant that thrives on neglect and have dry and brittle results in less than a month.

   The evidence speaks for itself. Wilted flowers and falling brown leaves are my legacy. People give me plants that they want to be rid of and never see again.

   Survival of the fittest is my yard's motto. Mostly it is made up of a variety of plants not intended to be there. Among the creeping charley, dandelions and sticker plants, there is grass, but not the soft plush kind. Children of my household have tough leathery souls on their feet.

   So imagine my surprise when my first tomato plant not only survived, but thrived... 

   I named it Darwin. 

Darwin grew and grew and grew

 Until Darwin covered a lot of ground and provided so many tomatoes we were handing them out at Halloween to the adults.

   It was a good plant year. Even the flowers bloomed. Then fall came and everything wilted. I cut down the dead stuff and cleared a patch for the spring.

   The next spring, I was given four tomato plants. I named them after my husband's siblings and planted them side by side in the flower bed. They too flourished taking over the entire flower bed. In addition, a fifth plant sprung up on the other side of the flowers.  Since this was where Darwin grew the year before, I named the plant Offspring.

   Unfortunately, this was not the luck I had with many of my other plants.

The rest of the yard was downright scary.

I was all set for Halloween.

   But then in November, a peculiar thing happened.

   Suddenly I had two plants not only growing and green, but blooming! One of them a dead hanging plant. (see first picture) Feeling brave, I brought these guys in the house, then I took a real gutsy step - I separated the hanging plant into four pots and found window space...

  I was astounded by the results. They continue to grow and blossom in the dead of winter. 

Have I gone from serial seed killer to fabulous farmer?

Then again, the plants along the driveway began to bloom in December, so maybe something else is going on...