Meaning, I did plant a garden, but I didn’t plant a garden because it was my birthday.  But it is, in fact, my birthday.  31. Man.  When did I wake up and get so old?  I just did one of those things I do every once in a while these days: I looked in the mirror, and thought, is THIS what 31 looks like? Really?  I feel like its impossible that I’m that old.  A friend of mine in college used to cry on her birthday every year because she hated the thought of getting older.  And that’s when we were young and couldn’t wait to turn 21 and legally drink anywhere we wanted grow up.  I kinda get where she was coming from these days.

But enough of me moaning about getting older.  Back to my garden.  My BF’s apartment has a sweet patio in the back, with about a foot of a landscaped border around the patio.  When I first saw it, I thought one thing: I can grow tomatoes here! (Ignoring the fact that my sweet BF is allergic to raw tomatoes, and only thinking of myself.) So I set out to do just that – and grow a few other things as well, like mint (that will be used in Mojitos!), oregano, sage, basil, peppers and jalepenos.

Mind you, I have NEVER grown anything in my life.  I’m not the kind of girl who played in dirt – or even grass, for that matter, as a kid.  But these days, I find myself more and more interested in gardening. So I wanted to give it a try.  I’ve been reading a book by Mark Frauenfelder (more on that in a later post!) and he talks quite a bit about his experiences in gardening.  It really inspired me to give it a try.  So here’s what I did:

I went to a nursery and picked out a few plants that I thought I would enjoy.  The BF helped my dig up an adorable statue that was in the garden, and move it to a place with less sunlight, so that I could make maxiumum use of the sunniest spots of the backyard, as there really wasn’t that much space.  He helped me pull up the plastic barrier that kept the weeds out and remove it. I feared the plastic would prohibit my plants from growing.  Here’s where I think I made my vital mistake: I didn’t put down any newspaper, or something else biodigratable to keep out the weeds.  I just planted the plants into the dirt.  The dirt was also VERY rocky, so we’ll see how much impact that has on the plants’ ability to grow.  I’m hoping my plants are smart enough to not get stunted by the rocks, but to wrap their little arms around them.  I got the plants all in the garden spot, spaced out!  I made sure they were all covered with dirt, and then gave them a good watering.  I watered them again the next day, and then it rained and rained and rained on the thrid day.  Today was again sunny. I’m anxious to see them this weekend to see if they’ve started to grow at all!

For you gardeners out there: if I see weeds, what’s the best course of action? Do I pull them up? Or use a spray?

My little plants, all planted!