When my wife asked what I wanted for Christmas, I didn’t know. I eventually gave her two choices: a plant stand with a grow light or a vintage medium-format film camera. She bought the camera. But the story doesn’t end here. My stepson, who is quite the amature horticulturist, discovered I was interested in growing plants inside and sent me a top-of-the-line grow light for Christmas.

After Christmas, I ordered the plant stand because I couldn’t let that light just sit there in the box. It arrived a few days ago and I assemble it on Saturday. The day before, I picked up three planters and three plants at Home Depot. I wanted to get more but they only had three planters in stock that were the size I wanted and that did not cost an arm and a leg. A also purchased potting soil as well as three plants: basil, mint, and catnip.

After assembling the plant stand and connecting the light, I put my herbs on the top shelf. As soon as I did that I sat in the living room and texted my stepson, Nick. I asked him how long I should leave the light on and at what intensity.

When I finished typing I looked through the door and saw Chris stretched as far as he could reach. He had one paw on the catnip plant and it was starting to tip over. “Hey! Hey! Hey! Hey! Hey! Hey! Hey! Hey! Hey!” I yelled, as I quickly made my way out to the Florida room. Chris let go but now Frankie and Floki were interested in what was going on.

I decided to put the catnip on the ground so they wouldn’t knock it over.

After a little while, I put the catnip plant outside. I also put a bungee cord around the other plants.

Sunday I found more planters and I bought more plants to put in them. So far I have sweet basil, sweet mint, speramint, thyme, rosemary, cherry tomatoes, strawberries, and no catnip.

I can only hope now that the remaining plants are not so interesting. I also hope that the feral cat I see sometimes doesn’t destroy the catnip that I put outside.