I’ve decided that Friday’s are going to be “garden” days. As previously mentioned, this is completely new territory for me. Power tools & craigslist seem to be my more cultivated talents but it’s important to try new things and branch out. The experience thus far can be summed up in the following 3 sentences.
Week 1: Nothing’s really sprouting.
Week 2: BAM!! Holy crap stuff is growing?!!!
Week 3: Hey look! I didn’t kill it all!
To be honest, Week 3 got off to a bit of a rough start but I’m happy to report it’s not a complete and total fail {yet}.
Two days after last week’s post about how stupendous & suprising it was to have things growing, everything almost died.
See… the seeds are sitting in the sunny window of my office. When I left on Friday, I thought everything was plenty hydrated.
When I stopped by Sunday to drop off flat #2 {which you see in the background}, it was quite clear that that it was not.
Flat #1 quickly got a good soaking and most everything seems to have perked around – thriving even. Some seeeds… well… rest in peace little buddies.
Dead Cilantro:
RIP Thyme:
[Below] That far back row is thyme. Some of them seem to be doing well. The 2 all the way on the left are pretty much gone for.
[Above] The next 3 rows down {from the little white marker to the chives} are rosemary. It is NOT doing well at all. Perhaps I need to reread those growing directions. Only 1.5 little squares of rosemary seem to be doing slightly better than “ok” and about half are almost completely vacant.
[Below] The chives are chugging along. Not going gang-busters but not dying either. I’ll take ‘not dying’!
[Above & barely Below] Cilantro. Like the Thyme – some good, some bad. I have plenty more cilantro seeds for try #2 though.
[Above & Below] The star of the show! My BASIL!!!! It is loving this window and doing awesome. Go, Basil! Go!! {said in my best Great Mouse Detective voice}
There’s such a fine line between too much water and not enough. C’est la vie.
Here’s hoping I can keep them all alive through this weekend!!
brickcitylove.com 
Thyme and cilantro are the hardest little fuckers to keep alive. Mint does great.
I have a whole packet of mint but want to plant it in a pot directly as I hear it spreads like wildfire.
I have never been able to grow things from seed. So, I just bite the bullet and pay for the small plants at the home and garden stores. Wah wah.
Chive also spreads like wildfire so be sure to transplant it into a pot. It comes back on its own without any effort — mine is already several inches tall and I kept it in a pot on the deck all winter in Indianapolis. A coworker made the mistake of planting it in the garden and it spread into her grass; now her husband wonders why it smells like onions when he mows.
HAHA! Good to know!
I’ve heard before that rosemary is a total pain to grow from seed – I know I planted an entire packet of seeds last year with not a single sprout coming up (though that might also have had something to do with the pup knocking over the little cup they were in with his tail several times. Or the occasional torrential rains that completely waterlogged them too). In any case, we’re thinking of just grabbing an already-started plant on that one this year…