My story of life, adventure and figuring it all out.

“A life spent making mistakes is not only more honorable, but more useful than a life spent doing nothing.”

George Bernard Shaw

One of the greatest things about doing my 30 before 30 list on such an accelerated timeline is that I am forced to make serious decisions about their progress.

Number 25 on the list was to “Start growing an almond tree.” So far I’ve been doing quite well with my avocado plants, and thought this wouldn’t be a bad idea since I love almonds. Last year I was reading a book called A New Life. The protagonist heads to Cascadia (Pacific Northwest). The lady he stays with has an almond and a walnut tree in the backyard. He described the ground being absolutely covered with nuts when they came into season. I’d love a fresh supply of almonds like that!

I made my list before I did any major research on the some of the subjects. After doing a decent bit of reading I’ve concluded that growing an almond tree just isn’t for me at this point in life. When I’m older and have a home with a yard that I can dedicate to it I’ll come back to it. The growth involved a longer germination period than I wanted to undertake. I’d also have to start factoring in cross pollination. I also read that I may need to do a grafting of another almond tree to mine just to make sure the fruit was flavorful.

I wanted to replace this task with another that would have the same spirit. Thus I’ve decided to start a garden. I cleared away some space in my backyard. It isn’t the sunniest, but when it gets closer to summer there should be more light. There really is no other spot in my backyard for it.

When we moved in there was this little leprechaun hanging about. He looks like he has been out of work for a while, so I gave him a job looking over my harvest. His name is Finny (Finnegan for long). You can see him in the corner of the garden patch.

We have a lot of squirrels coming through our yard, but I’m hoping they stay away from my food. I know there are several families of raccoons that pass through as well. I may just leave a trash can over there to distract them.

I already have one thing growing in my garden. There is some celery sprouting. I came across this article a few weeks back. If you buy a stalk of celery and cut off the stalks from the base you can replant it and it will grow. I was skeptical, but I have honest results. I was also told by my friend Ric‘s father that this will work for pineapples as well if you leave some of the fruit and plant the bushy green part.

My aforementioned friend Ric also moved out of his house into an apartment this past weekend. Since they don’t have the same working space I inherited several papaya plants, and a few green pepper plants. I’m hoping to keep them going strong.

I picked up an assortment of other veggies to add to the garden this coming weekend. I’m hoping the seeds from The Home Depot provide reasonable results. I made sure to pick some that were seasonally appropriate for the coming months. I’ve never had Swiss Chard, but I wanted a leafy green. Cucumbers and radishes are regular staples for my salads, with the occasional chopped carrot. Who can go wrong with onions? If I’m putting garlic in, I’m probably putting in some onion as well. I think this is a good start.