Thumbs of Death Attempt Rehabilitation

The truth of the matter is that I've pretty much killed every plant I've ever had, including cacti, succulents and other death resistant plants. Usually death comes by way of unintentional neglect. Like I forget to water the plant. Really, I'm horrible.

Despite my murderous tendencies, a friend of mine believed I could be rehabilitated. Over the years of suggestions, hints, offers to help, assurances that I could keep plants alive and happy, he finally got me to a nursery. Now I have a garden.

It's been about a month since I started. Granted, that's not much time, but if you can believe it, I go out every morning to visit my plants. Even if I'm running late for work, I make sure to go out back. Mostly I talk to them. I tell them how beautiful they are, how in awe of them I am, how amazing it is that they are growing so well.

In the evenings and on the weekends I look out on the garden and think of all the possibilities. I have a big backyard. Though there are three of us in my building, I'm pretty much the only one who ever uses the back. I like BBQs (except when my friends are trying to burn the place down) and having little gatherings outside. So thinking of the possibilities of a beautiful garden is easy. Right now I'm imagining more garden gnomes, Buddha sculptures, a fountain and a bench. How nice it would be to have a garden with a bench.

But it's not all chats with flowers and day dreaming. I've been filling up a lot of composting bins with weeds and ivy and trees that have gone wild. I've been terrified - and have terrified - spiders and beetles. I was pruned by a tree I was pruning - and yes, I was wearing gardening gloves! I've had a lot of hot showers to ease aching parts of my body not used to such labors and I've depleted my Advil stash. It's been worth it.

I know, you're thinking, "Don't get too excited, Beth, it's only been a month."

Yes, that's true. And I am a Sagittarius and therefore I am prone to getting very excited about something only to lose interest when the next exciting thing comes along. So I'll admit, you shouldn't hold your breath. But still. A garden! Flowers! Gnomes!

In the beginning there was chaos... And, frankly, a big mess...

The Corner of Dread

And then we cleared and dumped and clipped and potted and there was something like order...

The Corner of Dread not so dreadful any longer!

Okay, not much order, but it was a start. Things started to grow, I pruned, and I added a few more plants...

Beautiful things made their presence known...

I added more things, pruned more things, and arranged things, and puttered... I hear gardeners putter...

We aren't getting much rain and it is California, so all that green will soon go brown. I'm not sure what the potted plants will do but fog should help and we did try to find drought tolerant plants. I'm sure that if I keep visiting them each morning they'll survive my deadly instincts. That's my hope.

It sure is nice to have a garden.