Digging in the Dirt

I’ve always liked the idea of a garden, but for a variety of different reasons in a variety of different rented homes, I have never taken that idea and made it a reality. Last year, Mr. T. and I dipped our toes into the land of living things by getting a few pre-potted plants to beautify our deck. The plants were pretty, we watered them, they bloomed, fall came, they died. All in all, it was an easy initiation into cohabitating with outdoor flora. This year, we decided to get a little more involved. We said to ourselves “won’t it feel good to get our fingers in the dirt and plant some things?” And, because we agreed with ourselves, we headed to the local greenhouse to investigate plants, flowers and herbs.

Armed with purpose and determination, we browsed the lines of mystery greenery. We bought bags of soil, we bought planters, we bought things to put planters on, we bought a spade and gardening gloves, and, most preciously, we bought a variety of things that came in little pots. Some were pretty (geraniums, dwarf dahlias, daisies), some just smelled great (rosemary, sweet basil), and others we just liked the sounds of (Gazanias – what a great word, it should be the title of a musical!).

We brought everything home and, in order to get into the right headspace, we cracked open some cold beers while we played with the pots. We put different things next to each other to see how they would look. We asked ourselves a lot of questions such as:

“Does that green look good with this one?”
“Do those flowers want to be alone with like-minded flowers, or should we encourage them to mingle with herbs?”
“What does full sun mean?”
“Does partial shade mean that it gets shade at some points of the day and not others, or does the plant actually have to be in a space that is always partially shady?”
“Does this need more soil?”
“Are these too crowded?”
“Did you just throw that dirt on my foot on purpose?”

And on and on to a variety of other questions to which we had no answers. Despite the many questions, we soldiered on undaunted. The plants all got planted and, in the end, we had 7 fun arrangements brightening spots where there had been no life. The deck looks great and it should do so for the next week before the fruits of our ignorance start to rear their dead heads. Although I’m not overly optimistic about the odds of some of our creations, I am looking forward to discovering what’s going to happen to our new little friends. I find myself thinking of my gazanias at odd times of the day and wondering how they look. Maybe I’ll install a webcam so that I don’t have to miss a minute of their growth? Maybe I’m taking this a little too seriously?