Developing a Green Thumb

I've never been known for my way with plants. I've long been a practitioner of lazy girl gardening. Lazy girl gardening is very simple:

1. Have a selection of nice planters/pots on the balcony, in the living room, wherever you want a plant.
2. Go to the garden center and buy full grown plants.
3. Transfer plants to the planters.
4. When the plants die, replace them.

So when I bought my little house last year, I wasn't looking for a garden. A little outdoor patio or terrace, somewhere to relax on summer evenings with friends and a bottle of wine, but not a garden.

 

But now that I have actual ground to put things in, I find I'm interested. And I enjoy it, even if trying to dig a hole in the clay that passes for soil around here is hard and thankless work.  Last summer I planted three jasmine plants. I killed two of them immediately in a freak weedwhacker accident, but I replaced them and now look.

I have the most fragrant backyard in the neighborhood.  This weekend, I threw caution to the winds and planted mint. If this keeps up, I may have an herb garden before the summer's over.

If you have a garden and a library,

you have everything you need.
                                                       - Cicero