The Saga of the Seeds

I have a black thumb.

There. I've admitted it. I have not kept any plant alive longer than 6 months. The most depressing example of this is a Christmas cactus my grandmother gave me, that was once her mother's. This plant was older than me. It stayed alive through 5 presidents, 1 war, and 4 moves. 6 months in my house, and today it looks like this:

Depressing.

So you may be surprised to hear that I have decided to try my hand at growing some vegetables this spring. I do not have a lot of hope. The only thing that might save me is if Mason & Emma remember to water them. I mean, really kids, start pulling your weight in this house.

This is what they looked like on April 10:

This is a week later, on April 17:

And a week later:

And this is how they look this week (May 7):

Not too bad, overall. Although you may notice a strange discrepancy between the second and third pictures. In the April 17th picture, there is a thriving bean plant just beginning to sprout two beautiful leaves. In the May 7th picture, the same plant has been mercilessly decapitated.

There is really no excuse for this, except to say Mommy needed a time out and mistakenly thought Mason could "water" the plants by himself. How this sad little bean plant met its sad demise is anyone's guess.

We do have lots of leftover seeds, so I planted a new one in the same container, and it is just beginning to sprout. I have left the sad headless stalk in the tub as an ominous warning to the other vegetables.

Actually, I'm just not sure if I'm supposed to prune it, cut it, or what. I told you I have a black thumb. Any suggestions?