All [Green] Thumbs

Fair warning: this post is a little off the usual creative rails because, well, I suddenly had to tackle some things concerning my garden. Creative in its own right, but different.

I feel weird even calling it a garden

because it's mostly things crammed into windows and onto a miniscule porch. But I digress. 

This week, after a few tolerably warm days here in Georgia, we were thrown into freeze mode. This meant temps in the low 30's and high 20's in some parts of my state. Which is absolutely ludicrous where I'm concerned. 

I was born in the south. But having lived part of my childhood in northern, snow-prone states, I was over that, and expecting to live happily, sunnily after back in the south. Yes, we've had the occasional weather event. A little hail here, a little flurry there. Okay, well, yes, we did have SNOWMAGGEDON 2014 (read in a dramatic weatherman voice).

AP PHOTO/DAVID TULIS
Atlanta magazine

It was apparent there was reason for alarm when the weather people started cutting into regular programming every 15 minutes with sleeves rolled up and snow footage on loop to talk about WEATHER WATCH '14 and "wintry mix" - their words. But putting that into perspective, up north it would have been routine, no cause for alarm.

But it was just enough to keep things interesting and prevent me from missing the barrage of heinous weather from the first leaf fall through to freakin' May in suburban Illinois. 

Now here we are with my humble little garden that has struggled through unpredictable summer temps, hanging on for dear life. And me, frustrated with unseasonably cold weather. No, you cannot tell me it's supposed to be this cold this far south right now.

My plan for Monday was sketching, scripting, listing, and working to finish existing projects in my studio. But I spent the afternoon/evening scrambling to prep and move things indoors. Some I knew would be fine staying outside. The leafy greens, onions, radishes, and evergreens like rosemary would be okay. But I needed to address numerous tomato plants, flowers, fruit trees, ginger, turmeric, and other herbs. 

various tomatoes and basil, now nestled into the greenhouse

work in progress

When I say address, I mean I needed to clean and sterilize some of the pots, sift through soil to make sure nothing was trying to hibernate in it, aerate it, add fertilizer where applicable, repot and bring in. As a novice years ago, I made the mistake of just dragging plants inside. Who knew they would release a host of moths, gnats, and who knows what else into the house? 

😫😫😫

To my credit, I had already been gradually doing this process, one or two plants at a time. But to my shame, I still had a number of green things that needed attention before Jack Frost made his appearance. 

 

bay laurel cuttings

spilanthes and brugmansia

Thankfully, I made it. Not perfect. There are still things to be done, but the exciting thing is that this will be my first year using grow lights and overwintering many of these plants. And despite my skepticism about the effectiveness of grow lights, over the course of about a week inside with the lights, the plants seem to be very happy. 

The tomatoes are blowing up like balloons and there are new blossoms on lots of things. I mused "wouldn't it be funny if I turned out to be a better winter gardener than summer gardener?". To celebrate finishing on Halloween night, I turned the mini greenhouse that stays outside into a ghost, lol. 

I can see it now: sketching plants and fruit indoors, then eating them. 😋 

P.S. Happy November to you!

P.P.S. You can follow my garden progress on my second Instagram feed. I don't post frequently there, but I do share the highlights (and fails)!