Thursday, August 12, 2010

The Life and Times of Buster




I really intended to post more updates about my basil plant's failure success, but July seriously escaped me! I'm actually surprised that I still have a basil plant to talk about. Anyway, since Plan A was clearly a failure, let me give you a brief run down of the first month instead.

First things first, as you can tell from the title I decided to give my basil plant a name. I tried out a few different names like Benny, Baeza and Betsy, but none of them stuck. So after thinking about it for awhile, I finally settled on Buster. Jesse and I were obsessed with the show Arrested Development, which is sadly no longer on TV, so I decided to name my plant after one of my favorite characters, Buster.


So after coming up with a name, it was time to make Buster grow. In order to accomplish this, I've done several different things -- I water him almost everyday, I've put him in four different windows to find the one he likes (the one with the most sunlight), I've taken him out for a few lazy days in the sun and yes, I've not only talked, but I've actually sang to my prized possession. In case you're wondering, my favorite song to sing to him is "Get Up, Stand Up!" by Bob Marley - more on that in a bit.

After all of the love and caring I provided Buster this month, you probably think he's flourishing. I would expect that too. Well, lets just say its been a hard month and he's not exactly bursting out of his little planter. On the plus side, he is still alive.

I noticed right away that Buster leans. I tried rotating him so that his leaning side faced away from the sun, in hopes that he'd pull towards it, but he held on to his little lean for quite some time. After about two weeks though, he finally started to stand a little taller. That's when I made my near fatal mistake.

I put Buster outside on our deck, for a nice long day of soaking in the sun while I went to work. Yep I was jealous - a whole day in the sun! Here's where the mistake came in, I forgot to check the weather report before I left for work. Just my luck, around 4:00 a massive thunderstorm rolled through the city, pounding Buster's tender little leaves and drowning his roots in inches of rain water. Oh, and then I made the exact same mistake a week later. Real smart, Susan, real smart ....

Poor Buster after the storm :(
SO depressing!

I know, I'm embarrassed and ashamed that I did that to him ... twice!! I guess I don't really need to explain why I've been singing "Get Up, Stand Up" to him. It's taken a lot of work to get him back to even a semi-upright position, but after being beat down by the rain my little Buster fought back.

Here's a picture of Buster in his new favorite location, the dining room window. He's looking a little barren right now, because I just used a bunch of leaves to make a pasta salad, but he's finally standing up a little straighter and looking a little stronger.

Happy Birthday, Buster!

Here's hoping that the second month goes a little better than the first! Since he survived the first 30 days, I think I'm going to pick out a proper planter to keep him in - stay tuned. Oh, and wish me luck on month two!! :)

2 comments:

  1. This story is so sad yet cute at the same time. Good luck on month 2!

    ReplyDelete
  2. Oh, Buster! I was actually cracking up laughing at the picture of him after the storm, he looked like he was taking a nap.

    LOVE lil suzy homemaker!! :)

    ReplyDelete

I would love for you to leave me a comment! It's a great way to interact with all of you (and to confirm that I have readers). I hope you enjoyed this post and I look forward to hearing from you soon!