Green Thumb Part 1

It has been much too long since my last post. Life has been happening - moving, finals, graduation (finally!), and then my laptop cord died which made accessing all of my posts and photos impossible. So I am sorry for the extended absence. Let me catch you up on the happenings around our household!

First, I would like to tell you how I DESPERATELY want a green thumb, but it seems that I do not have one. I love cooking with fresh herbs, and since our new apartment has a decent sized patio, we decided to try our hand at growing some. So here is part 1 of this long journey.

We wanted to be hardcore and start our garden from seeds (because that is what "real" gardens are made of) so we went to Lowe's and purchased a Jiffy seed starter kit and some of our favorite seeds - cilantro, sweet peppers, and jalapenos for The Mister (because he wanted a full on vegetable garden), and parsley, basil, rosemary, and thyme for me.

We followed the directions on the seed starter kit and happily tucked our little seeds in to their new beds. I just used a sticky note underneath the container to show what was planted where. And we coddled and cuddled and cared for these babies.

But that Texas sun is not forgiving. And we didn't plant soon enough for our little seedlings to have a chance. The jalapeno plants sprouted quickly and began to push off the cover, so many of the other seeds didn't have the humid environment long enough to sprout. Then, attempting to "harden" the plants by slowly exposing them to the elements caused those jalapenos to fall over (because they got too tall, too fast) and the little guys who had only begun to sprout to die.

It was a sad day when we admitted that they were a lost cause. So we forgot about them while we moved. Our lesson here, ladies and gentlemen, was to plant AS SOON AS POSSIBLE. We live in Texas, after all, and the likely hood of cold fronts after February is near impossible, especially in the DFW metroplex. Anyone else have a climate that puts obstacles in your way when you just want to be able to pick some fresh basil to make a yummy margherita pizza?