The Seedlings

Day 359 of 365

Ron loves plants. They are his babies, and he’s amazingly skilled at taking care of them. This year, he has grown the most beautiful organic seedlings I have ever seen. I helped him plant some of them in the garden last weekend, and they are doing so well.

He has more seedlings growing now. It’s mostly tomatoes, peppers, and melons. He planted a lot of melons, and I am super excited about this. The sad part about growing seedlings is that you have to choose some to pull if you plant more than one seed per container, which is recommended because you never know if they are all going to grow.

Ron’s always grow. He needs to stop planting more than one seed per container because he then has to pull some of the seedlings. This breaks his heart. I understand. I have had to do it too and felt the same. For years, I planted the beans because I love green beans. And I would have to pull some when they got bigger but would always save them and try to plant them in different parts of the garden. Sometimes, this actually worked!

Yesterday, he had to pull his extra tomato and pepper seedlings, and they were so beautiful that Ron seemed particularly sad. He brought them to me in this sad little pile. These poor beautiful plants would not get the chance to grow.

In the saddest little voice, Ron asked me, “Do you think maybe the chickens or ducks will eat them?”

I lit up! “Yes! The chickens will!” I told him. This seemed to lift his spirits. At least his baby plants would not go to waste. I realized that Ron maybe hates waste more than I do, and I was so happy to do some good with the seedlings.

The chickens were over the moon because chickens love nothing more than tearing up a garden. They got to pretend for a minute.