Gardening Experiment #2:

I bought a house three years ago. It was finally time to quit paying rent and I was ready to “be an adult”. Two of my goals of home ownership were 1) a dog, and 2) a garden. The dog will be another (or several posts, as she’s hilarious). The first garden I tried was my first real summer in my new casa. I chose to plant a container garden because I just couldn’t even manage the idea of an in ground garden. So I planted herbs, some veggies, and some flowers. Many of these plants are still alive today. Many of them were also dead before the end of the summer. The first experiment was fun and made me decide to try again. I don’t like yard work. So my goal was an easy and small garden. There are a lot of things about gardening that I like….the validation of having grown something yourself, the battle between you and the damn caterpillars that eat your cucumbers, the sadness knowing that annuals won’t make it through the fall. But the thing I really love about gardening…the smell. I love the smell of tomato plants, not the fruit, the way they smell spicy when you touch them. I grow herbs, not because I use them in cooking (very seldom anyway) but because you can pull a leaf and roll it around between your fingers to release the oils and your hands will smell like rosemary, or pineapple sage, or lavender, even after you wash them. I love going outside after it rains and smelling all of the plants and herbs at once, plus the rain-----heavenly! It isn’t a big thing…it’s small and fairly inexpensive, but it makes me smile, take a deep breath, and forget about whatever family/work/friend/life drama is currently on fire.