Comedy of Starting Seeds

Whether you're starting seeds indoors or starting seeds outdoors it is of particular importance to obtain seeds from a trustworthy and reliable supplier.

In the 2003 movie, Second Hand Lions, a film by Tim McCanlies, starring Haley Joel Osment, Robert Duvall and Michael Caine, there is a funny scene where the two rich uncles are scammed with variety vegetable seeds. It turned out that every seed packet contained corn seed.

These hermit bachelor uncles, Garth, played by Michael Caine, and Hub, played by Robert Duvall, liked to sit on the front porch of their rural estate with their shotguns and shoot at uninvited guests. It was and was not on account of a mean streak in their demeanor, but more on account of the boredom of their retirement from being quite adventuresome in their younger days. Because they had more shotgun shells than targets Uncle Garth secretly filled out business reply postcards from magazines that cultivated a steady supply of itinerant salesmen for the uncles to shoot at.

Walter, their nephew, played by Haley Joel Osment, got dumped off on the uncles for the summer while his mother, played by Kyra Sedgwick, pursued her man after man after man routine.

Walter disapproved of his uncles behavior, but was intrigued by their stories of adventure which he suspected were far-fetched. The fact that beneath a trap door in the uncles barn was a room piled chin high in currency forced him to contemplate the truthfulness of their tales with even greater crossed eyebrows.

After Hub was hospitalized Walter decided his uncles needed to take better care of themselves that would include regular exercise besides toting around shotguns, and a better diet than meat and potatoes. So Walter persuades his uncles to start a vegetable garden.

At the end of every row they posted the seed packet so they would know what vegetables were coming up where. They had beets, carrots, celery, tomatoes, but when everything sprouted and got knee high they started to suspect they'd been had by the salesman. They did not complain to the salesman because he was long gone so they just took it out on the next salesman that showed up and shot their shotguns at him instead.

One thread of integrity in the salesman is that the corn seed he sold them was good corn seed and the garden produced a bumper harvest. In their brawny manner the uncles cooked it all for the same meal and piled the dinner table up high with corn on the cob. It takes little imagination to ponder the wisdom of a meal like that.

When starting seeds indoors make sure you get what you pay for. Most internet sites offer a money back guarantee for their products, including garden seeds. You may have the pleasure of your favorite vegetables unlike these uncles who were reaping the harvest of their shotgun folly from a vengeful salesman.