My relationship status is that I’m married to the idea of raising chickens. Ha! Well that’s true, but this is actually about my plants.

I must confess; I cheated on the chives. I grow everything from seed. But I could not, for the life of me, get my chive seeds to germinate. So I cheated and I bought a chive plant. In my defense, the plant is organic and came in a biodegradable pot. And I really wanted some chives in my window box.

Don’t get me wrong; I do not intend to give up on starting chives from seed. In fact, it’s quite the opposite – I’ve now become mildly obsessed with growing my own chives from seed. But I’m suspicious of the integrity of the chive seeds that I have, so it will have to wait until my next seed order. In the meantime, I’m loving having fresh chives.

To make up for my chives affair I made a serious commitment to the artichoke. We are in it for the long haul. (I’m hoping we’ll be together for at least 5 years.) I started from seed back in February; I planted a single seed and it germinated in two days! Talk about quick success. Four weeks later I transplanted the seedling outside in my garden bed. I’ve heard from several sources that artichokes don’t transplant well and you should direct sow – which I didn’t do – but it seems to be doing just fine. So I’d say this is a pretty easy plant to grow from seed. And it’s been pretty low maintenance so far. The only problem is you need the space for it.

I’ve reserved a 4’x4′ space in the garden for the artichoke. That’s a whole lot of real estate. I’m hoping it will keep my artichoke happy. It does get crazy hot here and artichokes aren’t known for enjoying heat, but I’ve put it in the corner of my garden that gets lots of shade, so cross your fingers for me as the blistering summer heat approaches.