Jenn vs. The Plants

I’ve never been a green-thumb kind of person. When I first got into coaching and teaching there were occasions when I was given plants as thank-you’s. Since I have no ill feelings towards plants in general I gave those poor plants to my mom so they’d at least have a fighting chance at life. I just decided that plants weren’t my thing and I could be content with that being an area that I wasn’t successful.

Shortly after I moved in with Hugh we decided to redo the front flower bed. Hugh asked me to just go down the street to a small nursery and pick out some flowers. When I got there I had a great idea (or so I thought). Instead of buying a bunch of small flowers, why not buy four large hanging baskets full of flowers and then we have less work! While that might have worked out fine, I chose bougainvilleas. They’re gorgeous, but they have thorns. I didn’t realize they had thorns until we were trying to plant them and were getting cut to shreds. The made it until winter when we decided to chunk them in the trash. Hugh was so relieved.

I decided that I had to turn around my plant killing ways after my grandmother died. After her funeral my mother gave me a large Peace Lily, or “Closet Plant” that was given at her service. I took it home terrified of killing it. My grandmother was a very important figure in my life and although I realize it’s irrational, I felt that if I killed the plant I would somehow be hurting my poor, dead Mema. The first thing I did was research the heck out of that thing. I read article after article that explained how to care for the plant and what not to do. It started growing! Hugh and I went to Garden Ridge and agonized over a very large pot to transplant it to. Then, Hugh’s grandmother passed away six months later and we were given a plant from her funeral. I never realized that there could be so much guilt attached to a plant. They are both currently healthy and flourishing, but Hugh says that if we ever sell our house that he has no clue how my grandma’s plant is going to move with us. Even with both of us trying we can’t lift the pot.

Fast forward to three weeks ago. Hugh and I decided that we wanted to put some tomatoes and peppers in a few pots that we have outside. We went to the nursery and picked out several tomato varieties, pepper options, and even some herbs. We have them all planted and we’re now worrying like crazy about their chances of survival. If any of you have gardening tips please share!