I’ve been so excited to plant my first garden but at the same time I haven’t been able to embark on this territory. Considering our house just sold and if I had started it, the new neighbors would be receiving the wealth. Not that leaving these goodies behind for the new owners is a bad thing, but having to start all over was not really exciting for me, especially since this would be my first garden.

Our new house has an incredible garden area full of weeds; looks like a meadow actually. Some of our friends came over to see the new place and the work we had done, they brought us a bunch of herbs that I was so excited about. Although I wasn’t sure how to care for them and how often they would need a drink, I decided this was the first steps.  To ease myself into it, I left these herbs on my front porch for two weeks keeping it simple; a drink of water once a day. We left town for the 4^th of July and when we returned my herbs were definitely struggling to stay alive. I did think ahead and put them in our flower bed to allow the automatic sprinkler to help water while we were gone; even though this wasn’t enough water, I had hoped they were still salvageable.

I had a concern of losing the life of my herbs considering I have never had a garden before and I’ve killed many items I’ve been responsible for previously. Getting married to my husband allowed me to start on this adventure. He had about 5 live plants in his house that I took responsibility for; he’d often question if they were getting watered, which was a good reminder that they needed a good, long drink. I started getting in the habit and even though they have had their rough moments in life I’ve managed to grow them quite well.

With that being said, I’ve transplanted two of my 6 herbs and they have literally flourished. The other three of the four are actually hanging on to life pretty well, they were hanging by a thread but have managed to start producing well enough that I can transplant them now. The last one unfortunately is gone. Dry sticks are really all that remains. This was my cilantro, I love cilantro, either I’m too lazy to throw it out, or I have some hope still, that in the midst of the desert it may actually still have some life somewhere in that dirt.

Tonight was the second time I’ve been able to use my herbs, it was very exciting. The meadows on the other hand will have to wait till next year. There is a lot of work that needs to be done and more dirt will need to be brought in. I’ve realized that the inside of the house is my main focus right now until the sun returns next spring.