Katie the Celery Slayer

Gaaah! I just looked in the backyard and my celery is dead! Or near death; it's all shriveled up. Parts of it still look green, but I think it's a goner.

I was so pleased with myself for discovering on Pinterest that you can grow new celery from the "butt" of store-bought celery. How cool is that? You cut off the useful part, then put the butt end in a small dish of water in a sunny place. After a couple of days, it sprouts! (or in my case, nearly 2 weeks - we don't get enough sun in our kitchen.)

It didn't matter that mine was slow in sprouting, because it took almost 2 weeks for me to get my butt over to Home Depot for some potting soil, and then an additional week to find the time to plant the sprout. But I got it done, finally, and set my pot out in the sun to await lovely fresh celery to be at my beck and call. I don't normally eat celery, but every so often I'll cook something that requires celery and wouldn't it be nice not to have to buy a whole new bunch every time?

But where I saw an opportunity to be a homesteader/locavore, Katie saw an opportunity for discovery: What happens if I scoop the dirt out of Mommy's new celery pot? Hmm, Mommy watches me with a baleful eye. OK, what if I pull the entire celery sprout of out the pot and throw it on the ground? Oh, wow, Mommy gets really mad! This is cool!

I admit, the last few days have been scorching and I didn't water the celery yesterday, so perhaps I'm the real killer. But really, I don't think being ripped out of the soil helps a plant's longevity. I thought sticking it back in the soil and pretending nothing happened would be a fine strategy, but evidently not.

Luckily I have one celery butt left. Let's hope I can keep it out of Katie's ever-increasing reach!