Rows of tiny seedlings, under a plastic cover to keep in the humidity, Destiny checked on them daily. The instructions said not to transplant the tiny sprouts until genuine leaves appear. Two rows on the far left developed the fastest; those seeds were also the oldest, taken from a freebie packet of random vegetable seeds that Grandma Dahlsad gave Destiny two summers ago.

Five of the mystery vegetable seedlings were strong enough to transplant; two appear to be pumpkins (maybe squash or cucumber), one was corn (which died from plant lice recently), one unidentified tiny plant, and one bean. There were also quite a few carrots, which were transplanted into a large shallow pot.

As the bean grew, I wrapped it around the baker's shelves that I use as a plant stand. I sprayed it with insecticide when it contracted plant lice from the corn. Destiny watered it and checked to make sure it was doing okay, like she does with all of our greenery.

Friday morning, I happenned to rearrange a few pots, to reach a wonderful discovery -- on the sunward side of the rack, behind several other plants, the bean had produced fruits!

I called Destiny to show her, and she laughed at the sight. "Peas!" she said. "No, it's a bean," I corrected. I picked the largest one and offered her a bite. Experience has taught her not to eat strange things from my hands, so I took a big bite as an example. Still unsure about eating this pot-grown bean, she finally was willing to eat a single seed from inside the pod.

She spit it out shortly after.

that's so cool. we don't get enough light in our house to grow stuff. my housemate has a sunlamp set up for her seedlings, but we'd never be able to grow a bean stalk up the side of a bakers rack, as cool as that'd be.

--tyson , 4/29/2002 23:10:14