The Plant Protest

Just the other day, I bought a small plant at Target. It only cost me $1.00. It was a tiny little pot with a tiny little packet of seeds that grew tiny little roses. "Great!" I thought. I'll grow this in no time.

So I brought it home, took apart the cardboard (which I recycled, of course) put the dirt pellet (I'm sure dirt pellet is a trademark name somewhere), poured water on it, and planted the seeds. And there my little pot sat, on my 25 degree and sometimes 12 degree, kitchen windowsill.

And I waited, patiently, for it to grow. After about 3 weeks, I still watered it, but my hope was growing dim. One morning, I walked over to it, and much to my surprise, a tiny little shoot was sticking up out of the tiny little pot. "Yes!", I thought. It turns out that I can grow tiny little plants! This was very exciting.

Off and on, over the next two weeks, I would water it, put it in the sun, and return it to the 22 degree window sill. After realizing that the window sill was perhaps too cold, I put it on my breakfast bar above my sink. What a bonus! It's in a warmer place and I will remember to water it!

I was never great at watering it before the dirt became dry. It wasn't Arizona desert dry or anything, but dry enough to make a tiny little plant very unhappy. A few weekends, I put it in the sunshine that streamed through my sliding glass doors in perfect angled lines, drawn by the vertical blinds. It seemed to flourish there. My tiny little plant every grew two extra, bright green, tiny little leaves!

This was all too unbelievable. I have had such bad luck in the past with plants, mostly killing them. Except for a tree that wouldn't die but rather would shed it's leaves in angry protest all over my carpet when I would neglect it. But this was different. This was real! And it was growing in my cozy but spacious, third floor apartment. Over the next week, I started to think big: Large roses, ornamental peppers, real peppers, even lettuce! Although, I'm not sure how lettuce would have worked out on the third floor. But a Google search would have probably told me that someone had done it before.

Two days ago, I watered my plant, thinking it needed more water than usual. The tiny little plant and it's tiny little leaves flopped to the side of the pot. I thought it was just because I gave it too much water, as usual, and it would recover soon. No. Something much worse happened.

Yesterday morning, I looked at my tiny little plant and noticed something unusual; the stem seemed longer. After some careful examination and gently picking up the part of the plant that put it's tiny little leaves on the side of the tiny little pot, I noticed it had gotten longer. The stem of the plant grew. For a brief moment, I thought my plant had gone on a growth spurt, the way an 8 year old does. Nope. It turns out, my tiny little plant uprooted it's tiny little roots in a plant protest. It was done. My tiny little plant had enough of me and my occasional sunshine, 22 degree window ledges and general over watering.

Today, I return the dirt pellet dirt to the ground, in hopes it and the rest of my tiny little plant can nourish the rest of the ground. Nature knows what to do with it.

As for me, I know that I would love to have a dog someday! And a dog can tell me when it's thirsty right? A dog will stop drinking water when it's done. They even have self-watering bowls! I should be OK with a dog.

As far as plants go, I'm going to check out some lovely plastic ones later today.