It just amazes me what we can do and don't even have a clue. I never thought of myself as having a green thumb. Never really cared about plant life one way or another. I mean, I've received the traditional "house warming" house plant a time or two and killed every one. Then one day I bought a $3.00 fern at my local grocery store and decided that I was going to try and keep it alive. Boy did I ever. That thing grew and grew to the point that I had to transplant the sucker every other month because it would keep outgrowing the pot. My husband used to make jokes that he'd wake up in a cold sweat after having a nightmare that it's long shoots grew their way down the hall and wrapped themselves around his neck. I also remember that nothing could kill this fern. I only watered it, maybe, once a month and would forget to bring it inside the house during pretty intense weather. I think at some point I did not want to care for it anymore.... it was SO MUCH work to care for this thing! We finally cut it in half and gave the two halves away when we moved. That was many years ago, so in hopes that I have matured and can handle caring for another living plant, I decided I was going to give a garden my all. Well, here is the fruit of my labor.... well, actually the vegetable. Turns out, caring for a garden is WAY EASIER than caring for a potted plant! Apparently these are the plants I should have been growing all along... no transplanting (well, other than the initial transplant from pot to garden). Here are my first sprouts from zucchini seeds that I planted. I'm so excited. Apparently I should have zucchini to eat off of my own plants in just a few months. Can you believe it??? I am stunned! I also have gorgeous romaine lettuce that 
had already been started and I transplanted into my garden. They went into shock and looked like they died. Then, about a week ago, I noticed green leaves sprouting up through the dead stuff. That was weird. You can kind of see the dead stuff at the base of very gorgeous green, organic and yummy leaves. I might have to cut off some leaves and have me a little home grown salad! This gardening thing is a great new hobby that I'm enjoying a lot. I bought a few books on organic gardening in desert climates, but there is one that offered serious help to this novice written by one of our locals, Dave Owens called Extreme Gardening. I HIGHLY recommend this book for anyone wanting to start a garden in the desert. I also appreciated, that out of all the books I purchased to get started, this one made it all VERY easy. The other books made organic gardening seem hard. I think it was mainly because the other books didn't "flow" like the Garden Guy's. Maybe? It just seemed like a lot of information on principals of organic gardening and this technique or that technique. Not information that a beginner needs out of the gate. But Extreme Gardening was informing me that it wasn't hard, that I only needed to devote about 15 minutes each day, feed the soil not the plant, and trust that the land would yield a lush garden. It works!!! A green thumb... this year's hot new, must-have item!!
had already been started and I transplanted into my garden. They went into shock and looked like they died. Then, about a week ago, I noticed green leaves sprouting up through the dead stuff. That was weird. You can kind of see the dead stuff at the base of very gorgeous green, organic and yummy leaves. I might have to cut off some leaves and have me a little home grown salad! This gardening thing is a great new hobby that I'm enjoying a lot. I bought a few books on organic gardening in desert climates, but there is one that offered serious help to this novice written by one of our locals, Dave Owens called Extreme Gardening. I HIGHLY recommend this book for anyone wanting to start a garden in the desert. I also appreciated, that out of all the books I purchased to get started, this one made it all VERY easy. The other books made organic gardening seem hard. I think it was mainly because the other books didn't "flow" like the Garden Guy's. Maybe? It just seemed like a lot of information on principals of organic gardening and this technique or that technique. Not information that a beginner needs out of the gate. But Extreme Gardening was informing me that it wasn't hard, that I only needed to devote about 15 minutes each day, feed the soil not the plant, and trust that the land would yield a lush garden. It works!!! A green thumb... this year's hot new, must-have item!!
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