a little obsession

Plants. Container Gardens. Wishful thinking. Growing things has always appealed to me, but I had a streak of killing plants in college, and living in this current apartment, I had been really hesitant to do much because of the lack of direct sun. Our living room and dining/kitchen area have a big expanse of windows facing out onto an open walkway which let in a lot of light, but it only really gets direct light in the spring and early summer. Maybe a year after we moved in to this apartment, we picked up a lucky bamboo which now takes up a good chunk of space in our tiny bathroom, and a lipstick vine which we were convinced we had killed only to have it spring back to life after a good trimming. The bathroom feels like a jungle, and we have planted two more lipstick cuttings which are doing really well. We've also picked up a begonia cutting/baby from a coworker, a dancing bones from a plant store, and a trio of succulents from a friend's wedding decor. Cilantro, Italian parsley,lemon balm, lobelia, lavendar and thyme are growing from seed, but the last two I think are growing on wishes. It's so easy to let your fears get in the way of what you want to do. For all my fears, our plants have turned out OK for the most part, I might even say just fine. There's no point in telling yourself it can't be done because the perfect conditions aren't present. With enough research and resourcefulness, you can find a way to have your own garden. I could have been experiencing the joys of the garden sooner if I had only been brave enough to try. Good life lesson that. All this obsessing over plants has me thinking that maybe I might just write about them for the benefit of myself and anyone who cares to learn from the mistakes of others. Perhaps you'll see more posts about plants in the future. In the meantime, I strongly recommend you to check out some gardening videos on the internet. Any of the following would do you good: How to be a Gardener, Fork to Fork, Around the World in 80 Gardens, Year at Kew, Gardens of Italy, Gardens of France. Enjoy!