Girl with a Green Thumb.

Ok, so my thumb isn't really green... but it sure is trying to be!
Last year my beautiful nan Mausey came to visit at my request - to teach me a thing or two about gardening. I have the desire you see, but not the skills. Mausey has always been an avid and very capable gardener. At this stage I already had a few plants going on in my garden - including some small citrus trees, yucca's, basil, a few natives and a chilli tree/plant/bush (not sure what it's supposed to be...maybe I should Google it). I was actually given 2 chilli tree/plant/bushes by my Uncle Darren and his lady Lisa (who caught the bouquet at our wedding). One produces large chilli's, one small chilli's.... well I managed to kill the small chilli tree and the large one was growing tall but it was looking mangey, the citrus' (also mangey) were being attacked by grasshoppers and caterpillars, and I was slowly murdering the native's one by one. You see, I knew that you should prune plants...but I didn't know how. I was concerned that I would be left with stumps for plants, so I just didn't do it.
With Lady Mausey's assistance we completely weeded the garden and at her request I cut my chilli tree/plant/bush down to a small stump. She said 'trust me' and I did. The tree came back amazingly and I now have a freezer full of chilli's from the tree/plant/bush that I loved, watered and pruned.

On a trip to Maclean to visit the priest before the wedding, we went to the Maclean markets and bought 2 strawberry plants which, after spending a lot of time in the black plastic wrap they came in, were finally planted in a big silver tub. Mausey informed me that they would send out 'runners' and create more strawberry plants... well they certainly did! Check them running their little hearts out back in mid-March-

Well that tub is now FULL of green (can't see soil anywhere) and (!!) there are little flowers popping up everywhere!!! Yippee! Gardening success!

I will be having red juicy strawberries on my rice bubbles before you know it.
After our little gardening sesh, Nan headed over to Mum's house as Adam and I had an afternoon wine date with the next door neighbours. Mum later told me how much Mausey LOVED spending that time with me and how 'she really knew nothing Karen!'. Which I loved, because it's so true. Mausey also went on to spoil Adam and I for Christmas by giving us this beautiful potted lilly plant -

It's meant to be an inside plant, but in this photo it's outside getting some vitamin D. See...I'm learning! 

As a belated housewarming gift, My Friend Emma gave me a whole pile of different seeds and a beautiful card outlining the meaning/reasoning behind each one. It was an absolutely perfect gift, and quite soon after receiving it, I got to work planting seeds into pots on the patio.

I didn't really know what I was doing so I just kinda sprinkled the seeds around, covered them with a thin layer of soil and watered them. They were planted back in mid-February.
Here are some of the pots only 5 days later...

And then a month after that...

And here are some sunflowers that I also grew from seed - given to me by My Friend Emma...

I have so many plants and herbs now growing in pots all over our patio, and I have managed to use a lot of them in our cooking already. Check out the parsley now - It's going off!

See the cute bunny? That is from our favourite cheap shop Beachside Bargains in Yamba. I'm growing him some baby carrots...

Will have to make sure I take a photo of them when I pull them out... They are sure to be fascinatingly mangled. Because I didn't know what I was doing and thus dumped the seeds all in one spot, I ended up with some very crowded plants. The carrots, tomato and dill were the worst. I separated them as best I could with my limited knowledge. Some barely survived, some thrived and some not so much...

But all in all, I think I am doing real well. I was even able to supply fresh basil from my garden for a Drew family feast of chilli basil chicken. If you didn't get to taste it at our wedding, you missed out. We love it. I will have to put the recipe on here for you sometime.


Until then...


Sweet Dreams. See You Tomorrow.