I’m trying my hand at being a gardener.

I’ve wanted to attempt growing some of my own food for a couple of years now, and I decided I wasn’t going to let another season pass without giving it a whirl. Yesterday Dave and I went to Stein’s in Mequon, and after wandering around their entire garden center, completely overwhelmed, we settled on a Roma tomato plant, a red pepper plant and a green bean plant, plus a few flowers.

I really wanted to grow some herbs, since we use them a lot and since I’d (hopefully) not be able to screw those up, but Stein’s was a busy place this weekend and they appeared to be out of all the herbs I’d want - cilantro, basil, and oregano. I might get those at a later date, though.

We bought pots, soil, and milorganite (and Dave briefed me on milorganite’s history - fascinating), our grand total coming to $46. Not too bad if we actually get some food from the plants, but who knows how that’ll go.

Our patio was my project for the weekend. On Friday when I got home, I went out there, surveyed the situation and said what the heck - and proceeded to tear up the hideous green plastic-y carpet that had been covering it since we moved in.

I folded it all up, heaved it over the side of the railing and dragged it to the curb. Once back on the patio, I swept up a pile of dirt that was the size of a small child, then I put on some work gloves and cleaned out the gutters that lined the balcony. Yuck.

Once I was done, it looked so much more natural and rustic out there - and so much bigger! I wish I’d done it two years ago.

So back to my plants. I sat outside yesterday when we got home and took great pleasure in getting my hands dirty and putting our new plants in their new pots. I wish I had a real garden to play in, but for now, this will have to do.

I did some reading online when I was done (maybe I should have done that first, no?) and, as I’d suspected when we were buying them, the pots we got, especially for the tomato plant, are way too small. I didn’t want to spend a fortune, though, so I think I’ll tend to my plants in their small pots for awhile, and once they’re thriving (God willing), I’ll go and buy some bigger pots.

So that’s that - my little summer project. I’ll let you know how it goes!