Igneous Popcorn In My Little Garden

If you're going to coin a gardening phrase, by golly it ought to be something like "igneous popcorn."

In case you're wondering what igneous popcorn could possibly be (don't be coy--you know you want to know), its common name is vermiculite, and you add it to soil to improve drainage but also help retain moisture. As Alice the gardening teacher explained it, vermiculite is a type of volcanic rock that was heated so hot it exploded like popcorn. The actual phrase "igneous popcorn" is my own creation, for good or ill.

Alice said kids love to work with this stuff, and as I mixed it into some soil today I understood why. It's amazingly light, and it made the soil so wonderfully fluffy that I wanted to stuff a pillow with it. But far more important than my soil fetish or the creation of an esoteric gardening term (alas that such a delightful phrase is most probably doomed to obscurity) is the fact that . . .

. . . I have dirt! In the ground! Sort of. One day when I was following Joy around our apartment complex for the tenth time, I had the epiphany that since no one else was planting anything in this long planter, perhaps I could. The manager gave me the green light, and I've spent the last week planning what to plant there. I took the above picture after adding vermiculite, peat moss, and some potting soil to the tired dirt that was already there. I then planted tomatoes, bell peppers, and herbs until the sun went down, and I still need to add some seeds for lettuce, onion, and carrots. Hopefully that won't have to wait until the next time Daddy is free to watch Joy all afternoon.

In the meantime, huzzah for the garden!