The Occasional Gardener

When it comes to gardening, I gave up on my dream of a yard with patches of thriving vegetables and sprawling colorful perennials years ago. I’ve got the space and the sunlight, but I learned two things the first summer in my house (as well as the second and the third and the fourth, because I always tell myself “this year will be different”):
 
1. I’m not that great at keeping up with it all, and
 
2.  I apparently have an army of furry (but adorable) creatures who can clean out my gardening efforts in the blink of an eye … many times pulling entire plants out by the roots and taking off with them. Perhaps they’re putting together their own little garden in some far away magical forest ... filled with vegetables and perennials no doubt. (I’m feeling a picture book coming on.)
 
Because of this, every August, my garden winds up looking like a empty mess of dirt and pots filled with half dead plants. That’s when I VOW I WILL NOT DO THIS AGAIN NEXT YEAR.
 
But then spring comes with its warm weather and blooming trees and … and suddenly this happens:

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​A girl has to have some flowers, right? And there are NO vegetables this year. NONE (Hear that bunnies?) While some of these are for the front yard, which always seem to grow despite my gross neglect, the rest are for pots for the backyard. That’s not even technically a garden, that’s pots. Totally different. And also … well … this year is going to be different. That’s all.  
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​Here’s to a successful planting season!
Xo,
Karen

P.S. A few of the perennials I put in my first summer did survive. Here's my favorite rose bush to prove it.
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