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Who remembers The Great Chayote Growing Experiment of 2012? 2013? 2014? 2016? What about 2017? No? Don’t remember any of them?
Perhaps that’s because they all FAILED! I’ve tried to grow chayotes almost 10 times and have not once been successful. In 2017, I wrote, “I’ll never quit you, chayotes,” and then not long after, I quit them. Because all that rejection gets a person down!
But now they’re back. I saw one at the grocery store at the beginning of February and bought it on impulse. For the uninitiated, chayote is commonly called Mexican squash, and they’re loaded with vitamins and flavor. You can’t grow them from seed – they only germinate from within. My germination rate is great – they open their ugly mugs and spit out sprouts no problem. It’s after they get in the ground that I tend to lose them. Even though they should grow practically effortlessly here in the desert.
I figure we could all use a good distraction from Covid-19, so here for your viewing pleasure is a photo journey of the windowsill life of my chayote. Prepare to be mesmerized!
Please note, to get the full effect, it helps to scroll really, really fast.
Fasten your seat belts – he’s really going to get growing now!
Ok, I possibly oversold that a tad.
But I’ll bet for the last 20 seconds you didn’t think about the virus once! And therein lies the power of growing experiments. Chayotes don’t give a shit about Covid-19.
I put the ugly little guy in the ground a couple of weeks ago. It’ll either be the beginning of his new happy life in my garden, or his death spiral. As with everything else, we’ll have to wait and see. I’ll keep my fingers crossed for him.
Hey, look who’s alive and kicking, and definitely hasn’t croaked yet, haha. It’s our beloved National Treasure, Dottie.
92. Can you believe it? She barely can! Still wearing purple, because it’s an awesome color.
We both live in Arizona, and during her birthday party yesterday (her birthday was Tuesday), we learned that Arizona Senator John McCain passed.
I didn’t agree politically with McCain on most subjects. But he was an honorable man in the sense that he was American first and foremost. A veteran, a war hero, a father, a brother, a Patriot, he fought for our freedom. He mentored newcomers in Washington despite differences of opinions. He could agree to disagree with people without hating them. He seems to be the last of that breed, and that is heartbreaking to me.
I’ve been very upset about the divisiveness in America. It’s frustrating. It’s not helpful. It’s distracting from the genuine problems we face as a country and as humans.
We’re Americans. We should hold ourselves to a higher standard than everyone else. McCain did that. Dottie continues to do that. It’s all about doing what’s right.
What’s right? Making sure everyone has clean water to drink and clean air to breathe. Clean oceans to enjoy. National parks to marvel. Not treating women as property. A living wage, food on the table. A fulfilling job. An honest wage for an honest day’s work. Not going bankrupt because of medical costs. Not being homeless. Kindness. Compassion. Family. Friends. Fun and playfulness. Appreciation and awe for Nature and this planet. Love of animals and birds and the stars and sky. Sunrises and sunsets.
We are so lucky!
But sometimes it’s hard to feel lucky. When we’re stressed, when we’re depressed, when we’re emotional. When we’re pushed down again and again. When we’re human. When we work so hard for seemingly nothing.
And when we have people addicted to power trying to strip all of those qualities from us to pad their own wallets and egos. I’m sick of it.
You folks, my friends, my dear people, I want to reach out to every single one of you and ask, what do we do to fix these problems we face? I personally have no idea. It’s complex and befuddling. I’m just one person, a white girl from Indiana – what can I possibly do to make the world a better place?
I think the answer is to showcase people like Dottie and others who are much smarter than I am.
Dottie has dedicated her entire life to making the world a better place. I want to be just like her.
There are others on the same mission. It’s Sunday. Football day. And there will be controversies. Here is one man’s response to a valid concern that many Americans have about black athletes taking a knee during the National Anthem.
This is Beto O’Rourke of Texas:
Sorry for the ads, I don’t know how to avoid them.
He is thoughtful and considerate. I respect that.
I’m privileged by being born in America with the correct color skin. Many of my friends don’t understand the plight of everyone else, or care, or think about it. Some of them do care and they are as frustrated as I am.
One man cannot solve these complex problems. It’s going to take all of us, voicing our opinions without fear of hatred and death threats.
Don’t believe the hype, don’t believe the lies. We are Americans. And we are good. There is no need to make America great again. We’re already great.
We can do better and we will. I believe that.
Thank you.
Hello honeydews, and happy Thursday. Welcome back to the Good to Grow plant blog, and thanks for being here.
Yesterday, I ranted about Home Depot and all the crappy plants I found there. I visited the one by Cottonwood Mall on Tuesday, and every single houseplant was in the throes of death. It made me furious – what a blatant example of corporate waste. Assholes!
I tend to the naive side. After reading some of the comments left, I get that there’s no way I’m going to save the company millions of dollars. Duh. It’s not because I’m a nobody and they won’t ever hear my idea (eliminate their houseplant department), although those are true. It’s because they’re making piles of money regardless. They have no financial reason to care about a bunch of dead plants.
From my point of view, it’s plant genocide. Houseplants are living, breathing creatures, 100% dependent on a human’s care. They’re not like trees and shrubs outside, they can’t fend for themselves. Once we as humans put a living breathing creature into a situation where they are dependent on us, it’s our responsibility to care for that creature – whether it’s an infant, a puppy or a seedling. Put a plant in a pot and bring it indoors – you better water it. Or it will die.
Really, I don’t have much of a beef with Home Depot’s outdoor plant selection. That’s because you go, buy your petunias or sages, then you bring them home and plant them outdoors, where for the most part, nature takes over. Yeah, they need you to remember to water them, but at some point, you can sorta forget about them and they’ll still grow. Indoor houseplants – plants in containers indoors – are not like that. They’re completely dependent on someone giving them water and attention.
I don’t get why no one understands that. Are we really so disconnected from nature, collectively as humans, that we can’t see the forest for the trees? Am I the only one who believes killing is wrong, period?
If Home Depot thought of plants the way I do, as friends, they’d see that they have tremendous amounts of blood, er, leaves, on their hands. But the reality is, no one in that company gives a shit. So on it goes.
Oh, crap. Yesterday I promised to write something more cheerful. Even a casual glance at the word genocide is the opposite of cheerful. Not really happy Thursday, is it? My bad.
I guess I’ll do what I always do when things aren’t going the way I hope. I’ll get back to work.
For you, a cheerful photo:
Good To Grow 