Plants are one of my favorite things. The life and energy they bring to any space is contagious. Not only indoors but outside as well. Planting something into the ground and then seeing it grow and flourish is rewarding. I'd like to say that I have a beautiful garden, flowers and plants thriving. Unfortunately although I may be one of the most determined gardeners out there, my success rate is sufficiently lacking.
I have spent more money over the past year in my attempts at gardening than anything else. I've planted tomatoes, peppers, an orange tree, basil, parsley, lemon herb, lilies, ferns and an assortment of other foliage. My best flowering plant was one I didn't plant and actually thought was a weed. Turned out to be a gladiola. Out of six pepper plants I didn't get to enjoy even a single pepper. They bloomed nearly at the end of the season and I was so excited to walk outside and see at least a dozen green bell peppers sprouting. I watched them diligently over the next few days, watering them when necessary. Finally the weekend rolled around and I felt that I had waited long enough to let them ripen, I went to the yard to pluck them. What did I find? My peppers were gone. Every last one of them. The two squirrels (dubbed Ricky and Lucy) that frequent my yard, had snatched them all. Clearly they had been eying those peppers just as I had. Well, Ricky and Lucy must not have been the only ones. The next day I went out to see that there were no longer leaves on my plants. Leaves! They took all the leaves. Yes, now that my peppers were gone, I shouldn't have been very devastated over the leaves, but seeing only bare branches before fall had even begun was flat out depressing.
Inside my house, I've tried a variety of plants as well. I'm pretty sure that I've made enough trips to Home Depot that their gardening department is on to my murderous ways. I'm surprised they'll still sell me plants. Despite my serial plant killing streak, I've found that there are two plants that are determined to survive the odds. The first plant, I couldn't even tell you what it is. Its green. Its leafy. And I can go days without remembering to water it and it still forgives me.
Now lets talk basil. I had the preconception that basil was a small herb. Small herb? Not even close. More like the size of a bush. I'm not even sure what to do with a basil bush. Trim it? Prune it? I'm attempting the cut, hang, dry method.
Typically I'm really good at forgetting to water, so the drying of a plant should come naturally to me. But with my odds, there is a significant chance that it will skip the drying phase and go straight to dying phase. I hope not. In the meantime, my dining room smells wonderfully of basil.
