The

Undeniable

Ruth

®

…and the Ruth shall set you free!

  • Gardening with a Black Thumb

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    Ruth Carter

    I’ve never said I have a green thumb, or any other green body parts. If anything, I have a track record of killing plants – including a cactus.

    My Little Urban Garden - November 2015
    My Little Urban Garden – November 2015

    Nevertheless, I decided I wanted to get into urban gardening – just a few herbs and edible plants on my patio which mainly serves as Rosie’s sun porch and stick chewing area. A few months ago, I started a little garden – 6 pots of peas, cucumbers, green beans, broccoli, and parsley. It had a good start with little sprouts were coming out of the ground. And then I went on a trip to a conference and I was concerned that they got too dry while I was gone so I soaked them water upon my return – and drowned some of the plants.

    I warned you I have a black thumb.

    I think I had to replant all of the peas and some of the green beans. The second plant times were outside the optimal planting times so we’ll see if these plants produce anything edible. So far, I don’t have a lot of hope for the cucumbers or the broccoli. They’re growing, but I don’t see them producing anything that looks like food. Conversely, I think I spied the start of my first bean pod the other day.

    Oh yes, I’m still a big science dork when it comes to my garden. I’m out there every morning when I get up and every afternoon when I come home from work, looking for new growth.

    Other people have said this before, and I definitely agree, that maintaining a garden is therapeutic. Unlike other aspects, gardening is something I can never and will never do perfectly. All I can do is provide sun, soil, and water, and hope that my plants will grow. And there’s something calming about working in the dirt. There was at least one night this fall where I felt extremely agitated but 15 minutes of gardening (replanting seeds after the accidental flood), I felt so much better.

    I’m looking forward to seeing if I’ll get any crops to harvest and applying the knowledge from this experience to my winter plantings. I wonder if squash and peppers will be more resilient to neophyte gardener mistakes. My patio doesn’t get as much sun as I’d like so I may expand part of the garden to the area just outside my patio wall that gets more direct sun – especially if I want to try to grow raspberries and cantaloupe.

  • Finding Ripley

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    Ruth Carter

    Eleven days ago my friends’ dog, Ripley, went missing. Thankfully, yesterday she was found and now she’s home safe again.

    Ripley's Home! (Photo courtesy of the Almaraz Family)
    Ripley’s Home! (Photo courtesy of the Almaraz Family)

    I can’t imagine a how hard those ten days were for Ripley’s owners. It must have been devastating going to bed every night knowing that Ripley was out there somewhere, worrying if she was okay. I am so glad and grateful that she is home.

    To this day, I have yet to meet Ripley. I’ve met their other dog Jezebel, but not Ripley, or “Ripples” as I started to call her in my mind when I was out looking for her. I know what it’s like to love a dog and how powerless I feel when I can’t fix her when something is wrong. When I was at work, I wanted to be out there looking for her, thinking that serendipitously Ripley and I might be in the same area at the same time.

    There were days I left the office early just so I could drive around the area where she was last seen. I walked around downtown Phoenix handing out flyers and talking to anyone who might see her. I’m pretty sure I talked to more homeless people in the last twelve days that I have in my entire life in aggregate.

    Losing and finding Ripley showed me the difference between a missing person in a missing dog. With a missing child, there are Amber Alerts to get the word out quickly. With any missing person, you can file a police report and the case will be investigated. You can enlist the news media to help you. With a missing dog, it is up to you to put up flyers and use your network and social media to spread the word – it’s very grass roots. You hope that people will listen or see and remember your dog in case they see her. Or you hope that someone will turn your dog in to the humane society or a vet’s office where her microchip will be scanned.

    Ripley’s owners did an amazing job getting the word out quickly and disseminating flyers. It was because of these flyers that two samaritans spotted Ripley, recognized her, and called her owners. I was so relieved when I got the message that Ripley had been found – a little thin, pretty dirty, very tired, and with a set of torn up footpads – but mostly ok. It was quite satisfying to put my supply of Ripley flyers in the recycling bin. I’m so glad this nightmare is over for this family.

  • Greenhorn Gardener

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    Ruth Carter

    The beginning of my patio vegetable garden
    The beginning of my patio vegetable garden

    I started a little patio vegetable garden in flower pots about a week ago. I thought it would be fun to try to grow some of my own food.

    My expectations for this project are very low. Remember, I’m the person who killed a cactus.

    I’m having so much fun with this science project. Every morning when I wake up and every afternoon when I get home from work, I’m like a kid on Christmas morning. One of the first things I do is open the blinds to the patio to see if I have new growth on my plants. I’ll stand there for minutes observing the taller talks and emerging leaves. NEAT STUFF!

    A few days ago, I had just woken up and in my pre-coffee stupor, I was so excited to get out to my mini garden that I walked straight into the screen door instead of opening it first. That’s how much I love this garden.

    I have 6 flower pots in my patio garden. So far I’ve planted cucumbers, beans, and broccoli. The peas and parsley will be planted in a few weeks. The seed packets said there should be sprouts within 7-14 days. I had sprouts within 3 days on the cucumbers. I was filled with glee to see this project off to a good start.

    Every day I see new growth. The beans and cucumbers are doing well. The broccoli . . . eh, we’ll see what happens. I was warned growing broccoli from seeds is challenging.

    One of the things I’m enjoying most about this garden is the lack of expectations and wonder that goes along with it. Besides providing water, quality soil, and placing the pots in sunlight, there’s nothing I can do to impact the results. Either they’ll grow or not – and since all of this is new for me, it’s exciting to see the progress. And since they’re such tiny plants, there’s a noticeable difference every few hours.

    Yup – I’m a big dork who loves her garden.