I recently made a meal using fresh herbs from the herb garden I started about three months ago.
Okay, so it was chives in scrambled eggs – but it was still something I had grown. Hopefully I’ve turned over a new leaf.
To put in perspective why this is so major: two cacti, a succulent and a malva plant have died at my hands in the past 18 months. My thumbs are clearly blacker than oil.
It’s sad, really. I was always the child who had a shrivelled up little piece of bean/lentil in science class when everyone else had green shoots. My attempts at growing flowers (they were pretty and red when we bought them) led to a dried up mess that looked like confetti after a wedding held in a community hall.
Simply put – I am not a green finger kind of girl. But I so desperately wish I was.
There’s something immensely satisfying about sticking your fingers into soil (I’ve recently discovered it so hopefully it’s not a novelty thing) and the smell of fresh earth is like nothing else I’ve ever experienced.
Since discovering British cook Nigel Slater and his awesome food (he has a fresh garden from which he picks things to cook) I want a vegetable garden more than ever. But, alas, unlike the nimble Nigel, I can’t even keep a mint plant alive.
I’ve always wondered why some people can just get things to grow as if it’s magic and others like me have to check every day if another plant has died (the coriander is already showing signs of fading).
So, tell us, do you have any gardening secrets? I wish I could tell you mine but I don’t have any. At least I have chives.