“You will and you’re know the difference.”
Not that he was planting tomatoes, but he was sure Lila was. “I’d love to see your garden someday soon.”
“Sure. It’s my pride and joy, but don’t even think about stealing from me. Had someone nipping my beans and peppers a couple days ago, and when I catch ‘em, they’ll get a round of buckshot in their butt.”
“I wouldn’t think of it.”
Basil fluttered his eyelashes at his friend. “Maybe you can help me get him started on his own personal garden next year.”
“Too damn late this year, but surely. Butter beans, cucumbers, squash and tomatoes would be a good start for him. I’ll get out some seed for him and mark it up.”
Basil went through Lila’s herb seeds, of which she had thousands, literally. A whole box dedicated to only sage alone. “That there, the good sage in that can in the corner there. Best for poultry seasonings, but the one next to it, that’s just for good hot sausage.”
Herb stared agape at her. “You make your own sausage?”
“Family recipe, passed down for nearly two hundred years now. Enough pepper to make you sweat out all the ills in ya, and so good, you’ll swear you’re in Heaven eating with St. Peter himself.”
Herb looked at the tins for both, and both had the same names, including the Latin species names. “How do you know the difference?”
“Well, it takes a long time, but they grow different. One likes nice soft soil and a little shade, the other is great for those spots that the ground ain’t as givin’ and the sun just bangs down on it all day.”
Basil agreed with her. “The same seeds, from the same packs, people wonder why they don’t grow the same. One just shoots up in a couple days from the seed and keeps growing while the other takes almost three weeks and grows slower. It’s like kids, Lila explained to me. You get all kinds from the same two parents. It’s the same with seeds. She’s marked them down, messed with them all her life until she’s separated them the way they like to grow.”
“That’s genius, really. I had no idea.”
“Takes time and someone that pays attention, and the world is sorely lacking in that these days. People paying any attention. Always with their phones in their faces, and for what? They have the world at their fingers, and do you think they look upanything that matters a tick? No! They want to learn how to put their fifty layers of makeup on better, or what some idiot in some other country puts in their morning coffee to make them live eighty years.”
He had to admit he’d thought much the same.
Basil added the seed-starting soil to the planters, or what they called cells. The tray was separated into small cells, and they’d plant seeds in the cells. “After they sprout, how long before you plant them?”
“Well,” Basil said patiently, “First, you transplant them into bigger pots, then a couple more times, for plants that don’t mind being moved a lot, like tomatoes. You wait until you get the second set of true leaves.”
“Um…true leaves?”
“The first to come out are called cotyledons. They don’t even really look like the leaves of the plant. Once true leaves grow, you’ll know the difference.”
“Okay, great.”
Lila was adding three and four seeds per cell, and Herb asked her why. “Well, not all will germinate. You want as many as you can get to give you the best shot of not wasting the cell.”
“Right, like you talked about, Basil. Like the IVF.”
“Exactly.”
They worked for hours, filling the cells with soil, then seeds, and as the wood and metal shelves in the greenhouse filled, Herb got a burst of pride and curiosity. “How long will they take before coming up?”
“It depends on the seed and the care,” Basil explained. “We’ll cover these in the plastic domes, keeping the moisture in once we water them. If they look dry, add a little more, but don’t soak them. Most seeds hate to be soaked. It really should only take a few days to start seeing sprouts.”
A few days. He was already anxious to see them.
“What you gonna do with the plants once you got em?” Lila asked as she saw on a crate, taking a swig of water from her old-fashioned canteen, and then swiped her mouth with the back of her sleeve.
“I…I’ve thought of a few things. Eventually, I’ll have my own line of herbal creams and shampoos, exclusive stuff. It’s all the rage right now.”
“Online, I suppose?”
“Online sells best, but I’d love to have a brick-and-mortar store too.”
