Finding a Green Thumb

The last time I tried to grow vegetables, I put them out on my balcony so that I could keep an easy eye on them without actually leaving the house. I kept the curtains closed and didn’t check on them for one day. When I looked again, they were dead.

It isn’t easy to grow things here. People pay a lot to have grass put in around their houses. It takes a lot of water to keep it alive, and sometimes that doesn’t even work. You can even get fake grass if you’re desperate. In the parks and on-island, the city puts a lot of effort into making spaces green, but it requires constant maintenance, especially now when temperatures are over 100F every day. We’ve got a small palm tree growing behind our house, and a few places where plants have magically sprouted around where water leaks happen, but other than that, my yard is a dusty desert wasteland.

I want to try growing things again. I’d wanted to work with plants for ages before I finally found a workaway on a homestead in Wales that would take me. I spent three weeks surrounded by every shade of green, and it was incredible. I ate food that they had grown every day I was there. As soon as I left I was itching to grow food myself. I couldn’t, because I was traveling. Instead I watched documentaries about urban gardening, read about composting, and tried to think of all the different vessels I had access to that I could use for gardening.

Now I have dirt, and cheap bins from Ikea, and lots of seeds. I’ve planted a packet of strawberries, and okra should be next. I have no idea if it’ll work better this time around, but all I can do is try. Once it cools down, I can plant more. Hopefully I’ll get some vegetables that I can eat out of all this at some point.

Also, my mom graciously donated one of our trash cans for me to make a compost bin with. I think a pile would dry out too quickly. We’ve never done composting before, and there isn’t a lot of garden trimmings and that sort of thing to use, so this might fail too. But, we’re trying, and either way I’ll have a better idea of what to do for when I leave this desert.

Somewhat related: I have an instagram! I’ve had it for a while, but I’m making an effort now to post once a day. Follow it to see pictures of cute baby plants, assuming I manage to grow any.