Alright, gardening.

I have never successfully grown anything. I bought two houseplants last year and they were both near death till last Friday when in a planting frenzy I added some compost to them (who knew plants need nutrients?), now I think things are looking up for them - they aren't leaning over and I can no longer lift the plants with a clump of roots and all, out of the soil from their cute pots, so that's a good sign I think. I won't even begin with the Aloe Vera plant I was charged with caring for in college. That one I still feel bad about because there was a super sweet story that went with the plant and everything, that's for another post. The point is I have tried repeatedly to grow things and despite misadventure I still find myself gravitating towards this hobby. I think this means I might as well make friends with my apparent interest and put some flipping elbow grease into it.

How it came together. The stars were somewhat aligned, that was part, but it was also one part me just feeling the pressure to finally do the things I had been thinking about and writing off for a long time. My step mom had a bunch of extra dirt left over from her other projects, a neglected garden plot that was likely to be left unattended again due to travel, I had finally made the indoor compost bin I had been planning for literally a year (more on that later), and it was early April. I was also full of nervous energy after getting accepted into grad school and worrying about being capable and compatible and surviving the experience and ugh, you know, the list goes on. I am sure we'll come back to that at many different points. I am a worry warrior, I will put that out on this cyber table right now. I have my share of personal life crises - existential mostly, maybe it's a 20s thing, which brings me to the other hopeful byproduct of this gardening project, other than just pushing through a challenge. While literally sowing seeds and battling the insane Texas heat, I am hoping to also ward off or at least keep at bay those other pesky seeds, those seeds of stupid self doubt that seem to be able to catch a ride on even the slightest breeze, take root, and feast on all possibility and hope. Not this time, not this lady, not this garden.

So the plan is to give growing things an honest go, to learn something, to hopefully consume the cool things we grow, and then to fend off the dark forces of uncertainty and anxiety that are constantly lurking in the corners.

It has been about three weeks since we started the garden, so here's a little photo collage to give you an idea of where we're at...

Don't worry, that's not a serpent, it's a drip water hose

Oh man, there was nothing like seeing those first plants peak out of the ground. My boyfriend spotted the first one because I was of course, preoccupied with finding something wrong. Seeing those first green bits in the swath of brown dirt was like spotting an Easter egg in the back yard. It was unreal.

And so it begins!