First Time for Everything

Last year I bought a subscription of Southern Living with the hopes of learning how to garden and have a greener thumb. With the 12 magazines I received last year, I saw many beautiful pictures of plants and flowers, made a few recipes, but did not read or learn much from the magazines, except that plants in Texas heat do not survive unless you plant cactus. In the end, I made $5 at Half Price Books from selling them my magazines.


This year, a tangible opportunity arose when I was asked to purchase a flat of flowers that benefited a little league sports team. I was given a form with a few different types of flowers to choose from. I had no clue what any of these things were. I Googled each one and put them all on a word document so that I could compare what they looked like and try to imagine them in my yard. I had not come to the realization that many of those photos I copied had a few hundred in the picture to make it look awesome. The flat I ordered only had 20.


I brought home my flat with hopes to start a beautiful garden very soon. The only things missing was potting soil and a shovel. Lets just say we thought about buying a nice pot, shovel, gloves, and a knee pad, but that would have made this $20 project turn into a $80 expense that I did not plan for. To save money, I used Kona's poop scoop shovel and purchased a small bag of potting soil. Here is what I did:





The Beginning (notice a bush in the way I am trying to take out)


After digging the weed bush up, I realized we had clay in our garden area. Clay is no good for plants and makes them choke. At this point with a big hole that I dug the weed out from and little flowers waiting to move in, I went ahead and plannted them, knowing they will only be here for a short while.

 This was my first time to plant flowers. Along the way, I learned from a visitor how deep to dig, how much potting soil to put, and what to expect- A short life. But in the end, I am happy with what I did, even though I ran out of potting soil after planting 12. It took me a week to plant the rest since we had 2 hail storms and really wet soil.

And with that, I will end with celebrating my first dig.


On a side note: I have recently subscribed to Better Homes and Gardens magazine and received my first copy yesterday in the mail. We will see what this subscription will help me do.