Aaaaand, we're off.

I have a black thumb. That's a fact. I have never in my entire 32 years been able to keep a plant alive for more than a few weeks or months. I've also never tried very hard.

My dad is a total natural. He can make anything grow. Even the things my mom tries to kill he still manages to rescue. He sees plants abandoned by their owners in the alley and takes them in and brings them back to life. He has a little plant rescue set up in his house - much to my mothers dismay. He never gets rid of any of them, that's the problem. Well, minus the dozen or so he's given me - all of which are no longer.

My grandma was hands down the best gardener I've ever seen. She grew giant hardy trees and perfect dainty peas. She won the blue ribbon in the fair for her dahlia's so many times that other people stopped entering their flowers. She grew me flowers for my wedding bouquet. Beautiful amazing dripping red flowers. She's gone now, but she has inspired me to at least give it a try, so...

I decided when we moved into our house last summer that I wanted to have a big beautiful garden. I got a gardening catalog in the mail and that was all she wrote. I set about researching and reading and obsessing about my perfect garden. First it was going to be half vegetables and half flowers, then mostly flowers with a few veggies thrown in. I finally decided on a 4 x 22 perennial garden. I picked and re-picked. I made list after list of all the flowers I wanted - by color, by size, by price. Every and any way to complicate the situation I took. What size stones? how many stones? what color stones? what shape? do i get full sun? partial shade? AHHHH!

Nick dutifully stood by me and answered the same question several hundred times. He reassured me when I told him everything was going to die and agreed with me when I said it would be okay and I could just buy new flowers.

After months of obsession, I did the unthinkable. I placed my order. Not because I was so sure of myself or because I was done thinking about. Let's not kid ourselves, the ONLY reason I placed my order when I did was because my coupon was going to expire.

When my flowers came a month early, I totally panicked. I knew exactly when and how to plant them. When to fertilize them and how to ensure they were getting enough water in the ground (using an empty soup can to measure). But, now I had to keep them alive in the house. In the house. Where things come to die.

I've worked so so hard at it and it shows. My plants are sprouting new buds! They are green, they are healthy and they are thriving! You grow girl!

My mom and I went to the Home D and batted our eyelashes and had some nice gents fill up my car with 70 stones and lots of mulch and sand. The time was upon us.

Rome wasn't built in a day people, but my garden was.

Before.


The plan.


The materials.


The Tools.


The Dirt.


The Masterminds.


The surprise!


The shape.


The help.


The work.


The work in the rain.


The progress. (and cocktails!)


The vision realized. Or I put my money where my mouth is. Or see these things don't only live in my head. Or I put up so shut up.