Gardening fails

Oh goodness. So my gardening endeavors this year so far have been just as good as previous years, which is… not very. Well, I’ll have a little luck here and there, but if anything ends up blossoming, I don’t feel that there was any skill or know-how involved… just luck. And as much as I am growing tired of the word “fail” being used on the internet, there really sometimes is just no other way to describe it. I have achieved gardening fail.

Photographic evidence! See here! I was not lying when I said I really don’t do very well with gardening. As much as I like it and the IDEA of growing things, and as delighted as I am when something actually blooms, I just don’t put forth the effort necessary to achieve the results I really want. (By the way, my photos aren’t nearly as good as Pat’s, but then again, I don’t have an awesome digital SLR like he does, either.)

Behold!

I don’t remember what I planted. But this is before, when it was growing:

And this is now:

Okay, really what had happened was, the seedlings were sort of growing, they got a little taller but never any bigger, so finally I moved them outside to get more sun… I moved it to the deck where Murphy, my 80-pound dog, knocked it over because like an idiot I had it in a plant stand, where I thought it would survive. I was able to salvage it with a couple of little seedlings still intact, or at least re-growing or something. And then he knocked it over again. THINK, Nitaya! Damn! So anyway, nothing is growing in that pot anymore.

Now the little trough planter, before:

Aaaaand… after:

It looks THE SAME! Actually I ended up having a few little sproutlings too… they were outside on the porch, but they were under the covered area so I moved them out past the covered area so they could get more rain since we were having quite a bit of rain. Yeah, a gentle rain is better than a FLOOD OF POURING WATER right from the roof. I know what the reader is thinking! I have no common sense… yeah, yeah. These were all good ideas in my brain at the time. I imagined a light sprinkling of rain falling into the dirt and not the virtual monsoons we were getting. I’m thinking maybe there’s a little survivor in there? Maybe? But I keep forgetting to go outside and check on him, so he might not make it either:

Sigh. Well, I at least have two plants that have survived long-term. Three, actually! But I don’t have pics of the third. The third are parade roses that my mom gave me as a gift, and I planted them, not expecting them to last, and they have actually bloomed two years in a row. Woo hoo! Lucky me.

My jade plant, which was given to me by my mom a couple of years ago, survived being chewed up by Murphy and was reduced to nearly just a stem, and has grown bigger and bigger every year… I hear jade plants are pretty foolproof though so there’s not much involved there. Patrick is actually the one who remembers to water it anyway.

And my kalanchoe blossfeldiana, which a friend gave me for my birthday last year I believe, and it has survived but it hasn’t bloomed again since I’ve had it. But it’s still alive! Again, largely thanks to Patrick. I hear these are fairly foolproof as well.

So that’s all the gardening updates so far. I also figure, every failure provides an opportunity to learn from mistakes and embark on new beginnings, right? So… I went out and bought more seed packets in an attempt to grow my own little kitchen herb garden! I found these cute white pots at TJ Maxx and thought they would be cute in the kitchen, plus it would be nice to have fresh herbs all year. IF I succeed, that is!

I decided to put them on my kitchen windowsill so I remember to water them everyday… plus, they are right next to a source of water, so hopefully watering them will be easier to remember.

Oh, that little plant on the left, I’ve had for about a month or so. It’s been hanging in there. I’ll post an update about the herbs in a few weeks. They are basil, oregano, and parsley. AND I keep meaning to post a sago palm update, it’s looking a little weird these days but it’s also still alive, amazingly enough. I’m actually not sure it’s the same plant anymore.