The pleasure and pain of gardening

Hi Everyone,

I’ve never considered myself to be someone who has a green thumb. I still don’t, and that’s not false modesty. I try, and I am just relieved and pleased that my little potted herb garden is thriving. I feel fussy. LOL. It all started last December with 2 sturdy plastic barrels, halved, with holes drilled at the bottom, 4 large bags of soil mix and 5 herbs just at the start of their life. Today, I have 17 herbs. That total includes 5 different types of basil and 2 types of mint. There’s been pleasure and pain but the truth is that here has been more pleasure than pain.

This is not my first foray into having a potted herb garden. Several years ago I had a flourishing herb garden but due to frequent work-related travel and no one to adequately take care of my plants, they eventually died. I was heart-broken. With my heart now finally mended I am ready to have a go at it again.

This time I started with some experienced help from my friend Floyd who is an avid gardener and small farmer. I watched as he dug up the soil from the yard and mixed it with the store-bought soil mix. He did the heavy lifting of filling the 4 half barrels with soil and gave me the honour of planting the herbs myself. Armed with my little shovels and fork, I parted the soil and gently but