I knew, somewhere in the dim recesses of my mind, that seed packets came with instructions, so didn't bother to read up on anything. When the seeds arrived I just opened the envelope, took out the packets and arranged them in order of height and color. Then I went out, scratched up the soil and planted all those seeds. Meticulously, each seed at its recommended distance from the next. Tall in back, medium at center, short in front.
I watered that seed bed faithfully every morning. In mere days I was thrilled to see green emerging from the soil. So I watered even more faithfully, and treated the little haze of green to a dose of fertilizer.
It took about three weeks for me to realize that all the greenery that I was caring for was identical, even though I had planted many different varieties of seeds. It took me another two weeks to pull every blade of that crabgrass had so carefully nurtured, blade by blade by blasted blade. I couldn't let it strangle my entire $90 investment.
Here and there among the weeds I found treasures--little frilly round leaves and feathery soft ones. Potential plants, I decided, and weeded around them. Any time I saw a cluster of identical leaves that weren't crabgrass, I could safely assume that they were something I'd intended to plant. And so my garden finally grew.
It grew to be a big disappointment. Plants that were described as towering 6-footers reached about 6" in height; some stayed hugging the ground in dismal little rosettes. The short sweet alyssum in front of the bed, which bloomed as promised, assumed gigantic proportions in comparison. My height and color scheme went by the boards, as each plant refused to perform as promised. In despair, I scattered a package of wildflower seeds that promised a fast bloom over the entire mess and decided that I had really wanted a meadow after all.
I swore would never order from that seed company again.
The next year was a great surprise. I did nothing to that garden except pluck stray crabgrass. That second year I knew what crabgrass looked like. This was an important lesson. I did not know what baby poppy seedlings looked like as they emerged, and so quite diligently pulled up about 1000 of those, while I was at it. This was also an important lesson.
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