Growing my Green Thumb

Confession: I kill everything. Plant life that is. I'm horrible at keeping plants alive. Once upon a time, a long time ago, I kept a plant alive in an Augusta apartment for a year, only because I watered it every Sunday when I did laundry. After getting a little off my routine, it died, mysteriously, but that was my record for keeping something alive. 

Now that my sister, Rachael, has moved to Jacksonville, and we live in the same city, she is coaching me. Complete opposites in many ways, Rachael grows most of her plants from seed and they just flourish in her care. A few months ago she brought me lavender, hibiscus, and her advice. Last week, we found a cute little nursery in Avondale, around the corner from my house, and bought some herbs. Parsley, rosemary and thyme. Rachael gave me a lesson in repotting and they are still alive a week later, and doing great. Hooray.

Since Christmas, I have nurtured a Jade plant, and since we left Augusta, I turned a clipping from a pothos plant to a real plant! It's a miracle. My old workplace, Stillwater Taproom, had beautiful pothos plants lining the wall opposite the bar that my manager and friend, Gene, takes care of. I wanted to bring a piece of Stillwater to Florida with me. The clipping rode in the front window of the Montero for the 5 hour drive, and the sun turned it black. It was too hot and almost killed the clipping. Somehow, with my care, it has two new leafs and enough roots from sitting in a glass of water for two months, to be planted.

Since my new house has a Florida room, a closed in porch on the front of my house that is all windows, it will be my dedicated plant room. Soon enough, I'll get a cozy little loveseat and small table with two chairs, so it will be a great place to cozy up and read a book, or drink a cup of coffee in the morning. In the meantime, the plants are sitting on the steps going up to the Florida room. My house is finally starting to look like a home.

Even something as simple as cat grass in this small planter is so exciting to me. I planted the seed in soil and watered it like crazy. It was such a great feeling to walk into the Florida room yesterday and see the grass popping through the soil! I've never successfully grown anything from seed, and something so simple as grass makes me so happy. And that little planter is so cute.

My goals for plants:

• Herb garden, a huge variety I can go and pick from then I'm cooking in the kitchen
• Pepper and tomatoes. I want to grow all kinds of peppers and make my own cayenne pepper from the harvest. Grind them up and use all natural peppers in my cooking. Maybe even grow enough so they can be a very thoughtful gift to friends and family.
• Flowers, and lots of them. I want my Florida room to have things blossoming in it at all times, and be a little room to just forget about work and stress and kick back with sweet intoxicating smells taking over
• Vegetable garden. Am I pushing it with all these goals when I've only just begun. With Matt's help, I want to build some raised boxes in the backyard and have a vegetable garden. There is nothing better than picking your vegetables from your yard for dinner. Especially home grown potatoes and carrots. Absolutely delicious!