I don’t think people usually make resolutions on Earth Day, but I have: I will do my part for nature this year and stay away from live plants.

I have long quipped that I was blessed with ‘black thumbs’, that I manage to kill pretty much anything green (or flowering) that I come in contact with. Part of it is negligence – I am terrible about remembering to take my vitamins in the morning, much less watering the plants. It’s another part ignorance – I don’t know how I managed to live my 31 years in such a massive state of ignorance about plant life, but I think I will blame it on my urban upbringing. I am a city-loving, apartment-living girl through and through. My lack of knowledge is epic – I actually asked Nick’s Mom about the bushes at the front of our house and she laughed to realize I couldn’t even identify a rose-bush! (Though, to my credit, they didn’t have any roses on them and never really have – they look more like stick bushes to me). I also had to ask Nick to tell me when/how often I needed to water our little garden when he was away – I even made notes on things like ‘don’t water at midday, the sun will just soak up the water’, and ‘no need to water if it rains’.

Despite my best efforts to be vigilant of our (teeny, tiny) garden and potted plants, I was unsuccessful. Despite my constant watering and even feeding (!) our little trees we’d potted and put out on either side of our front door, they managed to die while I was away for a month. To be honest, they died before I left, or were well on their way. It should have been a tip-off, maybe, when the water I would pour on them would not seem to penetrate the sandy soil and just run right through. Hm. Maybe there was something wrong there.

We were all set to buy another pair of trees (poor Fred and Myrtle – I knew we shouldn’t name them, we were only inviting trouble!).  Then Nick’s dad came up with the brilliant idea to spray paint them. I took it as a joke, but Nick (apparently fed-up with shelling out dough for plants I would only kill next time he was away) went out and bought a can of ‘Irish Green’ spray paint that same afternoon! We toyed with the idea of purple or red trees, or maybe polka-dots, but decided to go with the almost-natural green color.

Our spray-painted trees

Attached is a pic of our lovely little trees. Their shocking green has faded somewhat in the bright sun so they’re looking a bit more natural. The neighbors haven’t yet complained about the unsightly lumo-green trees flanking our door. It might not have exactly the same effect as planting a tree on Earth Day, but I think I’m just doing my part to protect nature from Jenny.  So this year we can celebrate two fewer plants that would inevitably fall victim to my black thumbs.

Happy Earth Day!