Posts under ‘Exasperation’

The Unicorn has lots of lovable qualities, but among them is this: He is a fantastic giver of gifts. He is not a fan of the gift list—he’d much rather pay attention to the recipient, think hard about something they would love to have but would never buy for themselves, and then give them that. [...]

While I might have ripening tomatoes in the works, what I don’t have is a whole lot of time. You might think I’m talking about the change in seasons, but the problem has nothing to do with the rotation of the Earth around the Sun. No, no. This is closer to the kind of problem [...]

When I got home from work Monday night, Fatemeh said, “There’s an herb growing out there on the patio.” “A what?” I asked. “An herb,” she said. “I don’t know what kind it is, but Stella tried to eat it.” Sure enough, when I went out to water the containers, there it was, grown big [...]

The experiment in which I actually water the plants has now been in effect for approximately two weeks, give or take a watering or two. While I was gone to New York for a family reunion, Fatemeh picked up the slack in my stead, and had the pleasure of learning just how much water two [...]

My very first California tomato blossom did not, indeed, yield a tomato. Instead, it fell victim to whatever was causing the yellowing of the plant. It browned. It shriveled. It most certainly did not transition to a fruit. This, which in my world constitutes an emergency, spurred my research into what might be killing all [...]

“Do you realize the tomato plants are turning yellow?” Fatemeh asked one day. I probably turned a little yellow myself. I had, indeed, noticed, but in my usual manner, had been trying to ignore it. I had also developed a convoluted set of theories that explained the problem. For example: We are downwind of a [...]

I’ll admit it. I used to think watering cans were stupid. I mean, sure. They’re fine if you’re Peter Rabbit and need to hide from Mr. MacGregor or whatever, but for ordinary gardeners? Really? After all, when I looked around our kitchen, I saw plenty of vessels perfect for carrying water outside and dumping it [...]

I will admit that though I completely expected to have to drill holes in the wine barrels, the thought of installing casters is not one that particularly occurred to me in the initial planning stages of the whole patio garden deal. But as I stood on the BART platform in San Francisco one night with [...]

A funny thing happened on the way to the patio garden: we ran into a bit of legal trouble. OK, to be fair, it wasn’t REAL legal trouble. There weren’t cops involved, and no one was led away in handcuffs. But there were rules and regulations tossed about via some very stern emails, and for [...]

There is no question that I should, by now, have dirt in my wine barrels. I should have them fully prepped, and I should be ready for Pilar’s seedlings to show up, since she swears they’re almost big enough to send home with me. In fact, I should probably already be growing lettuce. Or herbs. [...]