To Garden or Not To Garden

Something to blog about from last week's Pagan Blog Prompts:

I loved my potted herbs last year, I really did.  But keeping them going inside over the winter didn't work--the house is in general too dark for houseplants, and the puppy gates we have up to protect both our puppies and our stuff (not to mention the cats) make watering where there IS sunlight extremely difficult.  Add to that the fact that I have at best a brown thumb, and it spells failure.

Oh, that I had even a touch of my late aunt Juana's green thumb.  She could grow anything, and I mean ANYTHING in her South Texas garden--and she made it look easy!  The only thing I ever really tried growing on my own when I lived in Texas was a fern, which I killed.  LOL.  (DH and I (mostly DH) did have a small vegetable garden there once.  We (he) had a successful crop of tomatoes and jalapeños.)

I guess I didn't really like gardening until I became a Witch.  Or until I realized I was a Witch, that is.  At that point, as I became more and more aware of the cycle of life around me, and wanted to be outside more and more, I realized that I did actually WANT a garden.  I changed from a few flowering plants, grown mostly to "pretty-up" the house, to a combination of flowers, vegetables, and herbs.  I even got to where I didn't mind dirt under my fingernails, at least not much!  And I did pretty well at it--nothing died!!!

I did have problems, though.  I had to restrict myself to container gardening--the ever-present possibility that we will be able to put the house on the market keeps me from digging up the now-disliked lawn.  And I had to place those containers where they wouldn't get knocked over or otherwise damaged by two rambunctious, rapidly-growing puppies, which limited the amount of space with a proper amount of sunlight.

I got around those problems last year, but I don't think I'm willing to struggle with them again this year.  DH and I have talked about using fencing to cut the yard in half--one side for the dogs, the other for a garden--but there's that ever-present "what if the market improves" feeling.  And we're looking at a community garden plot, but we're not sure we'll be able to swing it financially in time to actually get a plot for this year. 

All of which makes me think that this year maybe I should be thinking about gardening, researching plants, and planning for next year instead of actually trying to garden.  The dogs will be older, and presumably calmer by then, our financial situation will hopefully be better, and maybe, just maybe, we will have sold the house by then, or maybe even decided not to do so.

Anybody know how long it takes grass to grow and re-establish itself in Southern Ontario?

Fruits of Our Labors

Because we planted fairly mature plants late in the season, we're already able to harvest some of the produce from them.  Our mint was doing so well that yesterday we took enough to make plenty of mojitos.  Both yesterday evening and this afternoon we sat on our mini-patio and enjoyed the warm weather and the cold alcohol!

Today, we picked a couple of hot peppers to use in a stir fry tomorrow, to which we'll add some of the cilantro that's overrunning its pot.  It's doing so well, in fact, that I'm glad it's one of our favorite cooking herbs.

Outside of culinary uses, I don't have any specific magickal plans for the herbs yet.  I'll probably use the mint for prosperity, travel, and/or happiness, the cilantro I'll most likely use for home protection.  I have no idea what my kitchen witch DH is planning for the stir-fry tomorrow.

Container Gardening Gone Mad

Okay, so we had one herb left after we finished potting them, and one pot that was WAY too big for it, or any of them, really.  No problem.  We'd drop by our favorite nursery, drop off the thin, plastic pots in which they sell plants (since the recycling guys won't take them), and grab another small pot for the feverfew.  Oh, and what about a tomato plant for that big pot?  Again, no problem.

EXCEPT, once we're there, we figure if we're going to get tomato plants, we should get at least a couple of plants.  And what about two varieties of them?  And what about a few pepper plants?  Oh, and look!  They have stevia!  (Only one plant, but they'll be getting more later this week.)  And so on. End result, we now have a small container vegetable garden as well as an herb garden. 

Or we will as soon as we get more pots for them.  :)

New Gardening Plan

For the past two years, I've planted pots and window boxes full of "pretty" plants--plants selected to make the house more attractive should the market all of a sudden get better. No more!

I know I'm a month or so late (being late is the story of my life), but in the next few weeks I'm going to plant herbs. All kinds of herbs. I've already got rosemary, sage and chives, so I'll probably be expanding to thyme, dill, anise, and cilantro. I might also add garlic and cardamom. All of this is dependent on whether any of it will grow here in Southern Ontario, of course, but that is my plan.