Adventures in Gardening with My Brown Thumb: Part 1

Growing up I never did much gardening. I'd occasionally help my mom with her garden, but I was never responsible for any plants myself. I've managed to keep a few house plants (barely) alive, but hadn't really tried to grow anything. Last Spring (2012) I made my first attempt. I planted some basil and oregano seeds in egg cartons in my East-facing kitchen windowsill (how I wish I had a South-facing window) and moonflower seeds in a container in the back yard.

My herbs outgrew their egg carton pretty quickly, so I transplanted them into something a bit larger. They didn't do to well in it either, though and eventually all died without ever getting big enough to get any use out of. In hindsight, I think I didn't have enough dirt for them, and I'm not the best at remembering things like watering plants. The moonflower on the other hand, was a success. It gave me one beautiful bloom, before going dormant in the F
all. This was the first (and so far only) time I've grown a mature plant from a seed. I had plans to plant around a couple of trees in my front yard, but I only got as far as putting up a border and half-prepping the soil. This year I'm trying to do a bit more.

So, Spring 2013 is here and I'm once again attempting to grow things. My husband got me a nice window-sill sized pot for growing herbs. They started growing, but weren't doing great, so my husband decided to move them to a west-facing window in the afternoon where they'd get more sun. Of course it was just my luck that the cardboard we'd taped up to block sun in the top of the window (yes, redneck, I know) fell down right into my pot of herbs, pretty well finishing them off. I continued to water them for a few days in case there was any chance of recovery, but to no avail. I also got the kids each a flower seed in a ceramic egg, but they never even seemed to start growing. I've weeded out my moonflower pot, but can't tell yet whether it will make a comeback.

I finally tackled the flower bed along the front porch of my house. There was a redbud tree (about 3' tall) growing in my front flower bed, too close to the house, and a dead tree (about 5-6' tall) in the back yard, so my husband and I removed the dead one and transplanted the redbud into its location. Three small bushes were already there when we moved in and I'm leaving them alone. There was also mint, which is nice, except that it was bent on world domination. I transplanted some of the min into a container, and tred to remove all the rest that I possibly could. I also dug up the first 4 inches or so of ground and pulled out any large rocks I found, which included a decent amount of concrete which must have escaped the forms when the porch was poured. We then put down weed fabric and some decorative things, and I finally got around to planting some strawberry plants today.

My in-laws have a lot of garden space, so I've started a fairy garden over there and hopefully the kids will be growing things over there too. I'll post updated and photos as I get around to it.