Wednesday, December 02, 2009

Spring in December

My friend Usha, knowing how much I love ginger, told me some time ago that I could plant ginger root and it would grow into a plant. So I did. You can't see the shoot on the middle one, but the one on the left seems very happy under my under-cabinet lights. I can't wait to see what happens next! Jessica, of course, made fun of me when it came to avocado plants. As long as she remembers, I have been trying to grow avocado pits into plants, with scant success. This time, I may be getting somewhere. I picked an avocado last January from the tree growing outside my mother's apartment in West Palm Beach. 20 years ago, she and her friend Pauline planted a pit outside the building and now it is a whole tree. Here is its offspring, on my counter behind the sink and under the lights. Hope springs eternal. The weather has been lovely and mild here in the past few days. It poured all night but happily, the sun came out and it was warm enough to go jacket-less and Birkenstock'ed to NY City today. I spent a whole day in the city and didn't take one picture because why would you want to see the interior of: the parking garage(early bird special, only $30 today) the doctor's office, Pastrami Queen for lunch, the hospital, the parking garage (or as you people from Michigan call it, parking "structure."), and then to Brooklyn. We checked on Jessica's renovations and headed for the Holland Tunnel, where I got a ticket for "blocking the box" to the tune of $115. Only in New York. Early to bed because tomorow I am meeting Jessica's contractor at Home Despot to look for backsplash tiles to bring back for her (and Tommy) to look at.

10 comments:

Eva said...

Ginger grows nicely! I had some full grown for a few months, and I'm not a person with a green thumb, not at all (rather a withered one).

Anonymous said...

Ok, what is "blocking the box"???

Diane Cransac said...

I too have been trying to grow an avacado for years. You look like you are having much more success than me!

kathy said...

I'm very impressed with your green thumb...not sure I ever knew avocados grew on a tree! Actually, I never thought about it.

Sujatha said...

Oh..I never thought of the ginger...but then I havent had much success with herbs and other veggies here...

Martha C. Hall said...

I used to grow avacados from pits all the time. Mark would eventually complain about all the pits in glasses on the window sill, and then the leggy plants cluttering the place. I think I'm actually forbidden from doing it anymore! In any case, I haven't grown one for years, though I'm always tempted!

Debra Dixon said...

Ginger is a huge plant all over the landscape here in Houston. I assume it is the same one you eat, right? In our climate, it grows best in shadier spots so I bet it would do fine in a house.

You have spring and we are expecting snow this afternoon.

Unknown said...

That is one healthy avacado plant! Let us know when it bears fruit.

jane dávila said...

So my husband grew an avocado plant from a pit on his third try a couple of years ago. Did you know that they're supposed to grow to something like 30 feet high? Well, they don't in a house with 9 foot ceilings - what an unattractive mess after the first couple of years. The wretched thing finally died last week. I hope your plant is pretty and short! LOL

jane

Unknown said...

I too grew a tree from an avocado...I gave it away when it reached 9 feet....I don't really recommend it...nor do I recommend growing citrus from seeds...I did that too and the trees have LONG NASTY thorns...I gave that one away too at 7 feet tall... Not bad for growing it in Michigan without a greenhouse...or maybe my house was a green house!

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