To garden or not to garden, that is the question. A question I asked myself as I realized I had killed every other plant I had ever owned. Succulents and bamboo included. So why was I standing in the gardening section at my local hardware store? Why was I even worrying about which plants could survive in the desert wasteland I call home?
Hello and welcome to my shoes. Ever since I was little, I wanted to be able to plant and grow my own food. I have fond memories of being elbow deep in dirt, helping my grandma with her seasonal gardens. So, in my journey to learn new things, I decided I wanted to learn how to garden.
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Getting into Gardening
When dipping your feet into something new, it is suggested that you take things one step at a time. Taking time to see if you really enjoy this new thing. I tend to take a different approach. More like, cannon balling into freezing cold water. That’s how I ended up with over 10 plants in the span of two weeks.
Thankfully, as I jumped head first into this new hobby, I had an awesome friend to help me out. She is an amazing expert gardener in my area who helped me get a great start on gardening. But I didn’t want to constantly bombard her with questions, so I also made good use of the internet. The wonderful, wonderful internet. Research being done, I took to the local farmers market and nurseries to build my new collection. This was also when I learned that gardening can be kind of expensive. But nevertheless, I continued putting all of my efforts into keeping these little things alive. Little did I know, this was the calm before the storm.
My Gardening Struggles
In this world, no good ever happens without a little blood, sweat, and a lot of tears. I came to realize this soon after the last picture was taken. I had no idea how many things are out to get your plants! The fact that I under-watered them to start with didn’t help. Then, the bugs came….. And then the heat.
Having lost half of my garden to spider mites, I now understand why farmers use pesticides. Now, I’m not saying I agree with putting harmful chemicals into people’s mouths. What I am saying is, one of the best triumphs in gardening is when the little terrors eating their fill of your hard work finally fall stone dead and get what’s coming to them! But after the horrible little creatures were finally gone, I had the summer heat to deal with. For most places, as I understand it, summer is a great time for things to grow. However, when you live in the middle of a desert that regularly reaches and stays in the triple digits for weeks on end, summer is basically a death sentence for plants. Thus ending my first attempt at gardening.
Reaping The Rewards
I mourned the loss of my garden, but I wasn’t defeated! Even having my garden now sunburnt and eaten, I was able to reap the rewards from my little garden. Most were small, but I couldn’t believe I had actually successfully grown things I could eat!
Excitedly, I clipped off and pulled up my little gems from their hiding places, brought them into the house, and showed them to everyone. Then naturally, I did a photo shoot. I need proof I grew actual food in the desert! I’m now on my second season of gardening and I’ve decided to go small. Not just because I started too early and bugs and sun killed half my garden. This time I’ve gone small so that I can focus on helping the few plants I do have, to flourish. I’m working mostly with herbs this year that I know can handle the heat. Ones like rosemary and mint. But I’m confident I can get these hardy little plants to survive!
One of Three Beef Steak Tomatoes (The Big Tomatoes) 
Fresh Grown Scallop Squash and Beans 
The Baby Water Melon 
My Haul of Radishes!
That’s It!
Gardening was just one of the things I decided to learn during quarantine in 2020. If you’d like to see what else I tried my hand at, Click Here. All in all, I think the greatest lesson I’ve learned in gardening, was that you will fail. You can try your hardest and still fail. But as long as you keep learning, and don’t let failure stop you, you’ll be able to accomplish some incredible things.
Thank you for reading this edition to the welcome to my shoes blog! I post every other Tuesday so if you like what you’ve read today, drop your email here so you don’t miss a thing. Trust me, there’s a lot more where this came from. Before you go, I have a question for you. Have you ever tried gardening? Leave your experiences below, or any suggestions you might have so I kill less plants! Thank you again for joining me, and I can’t wait to share my adventures with you as I continue exploring the world one step at a time!
I read somewhere you should dig your fingernails in to a bar of soap so that when you’re working in the dirt you won’t get any under your nails. Then when you wash your hands, you already have soap suds. I just wear gloves.
Just do the dishes for a couple of days by hand and your hands will be soft like mine, and your nails will be clean too.