Secret Garden

I like to think I have a green thumb. Like to think being the key phrase of that sentence.

It all started after the Mr. and I got married. I just felt that because I had entered sweet wedded bliss and wives are supposed to be perfectly domestic, our house needed some sweet homely touches to it. And since we were living in Hawaii at the time, I went out and started a beautiful arrangement of plumerias, gardenias, hibiscuses and few other beautiful exotic plants I loved and was lucky enough to have handy. I'd post some photos of my great past gardening attempts but unfortunately, when my external hard drive crashed, along went all my photography portfolio. But that's another story. Overall some of the flowers grew beautifully and others just never caught on as great. I was totally rocking my green thumb.

So when the Mr. and I moved to California, I had big hopes and dreams of continuing my gardening adventures. I mean c'mon, how hard could it be? Well as it turns out, pretty hard. I managed to rot my plumeria plant within a month and killed two decorative money trees within the next few months as well. Depressing? Definitely.

I thought it'd change when we moved from our small apartment to a bigger place with a yard. So I ventured out and bought a beautiful rose bush, a hibiscus plant and another gardenia one. Within weeks, the leaves were brown and as crisp as french fries. Apparently, they were getting too much sun. Who knew? Not me.

So I sent my plants over to my Poppy's house. With the greenest thumb I've ever seen and a garden to prove it, I just knew I had to pull every ounce of knowledge out of his sweet Japanese head. And within weeks of their move, the plants were flourishing. Bright magenta roses, beautiful hibiscuses. I couldn't believe my eyes. I HAD to master this skill.

So here we are. Spring. The rain is slowing down and the weather starting to warm. The perfect time to plant. And one day, during a Target trip, I got excited, went out on a whim and bought two strawberry plants. They seemed like the perfect spring plants. I mean, how hard could it really be?

Turns out not at all. Within a few weeks, I had over 15 little strawberries popping up and the plants were growing at rapid speeds. I'd water it religiously, make sure the sun was perfect and give it all the TLC I possible could. Until one day I came out to this:

How could it be?! There had been FIVE strawberries on it the day before! Turns out, a sneaky little rodent has been coming in and feasting on my beautiful strawberries when the backyard is dark and the house is asleep! I was mortified! My green thumb was being sabotaged.

So I had to act and I had to act fast. At the rate this rodent was going, (we're suspecting it's either a rabbit or raccoon) there would be no plants the following day. So to Home Depot I rushed, found a Strawberry Topsy Turvy, ran to Target and purchased some additional strawberries and VOILA!

So 17 small and 2 large strawberry plants later, I'm done. And the even better catch, it's Earth Day, so I did my part to help the Earth.

Fingers crossed for yummy strawberries and no rodents!

Happy Earth Day!