Someday, I’ll have a real garden. With handsome young men that I pay to do the weeding.

It’s mocking me.

The “New Post” button, it keeps mocking me.

“Corianne,” it says, “You don’t have anything to write about.  You phoned it in yesterday, and skipped the day before, and today, you don’t have anything.  Just give up.  Mwahahahahaha.”

Evil laughter in my head is a bit anti-climactic.

Perhaps that’s true, but what’s the point in setting a goal to write every day if you give up when things get hard? Anyway, evil “new post”  button, I DO have something to write about.  Something I’m very pleased about.  So there.

I’ve lived in my home for about three years now.  Long enough that I’ve finally got it through my head that my balcony faces east, and there are building right across from me, so it’s like I’m in a canyon.  I get a few hours of sunlight a day, but not enough for, say petunias and marigolds.

The apartment I lived in before I moved here faces west, with no trees or buildings to block the blast from the afternoon sun.  It is very nice in the winter, in the summer, though…

I lived there for three years as well, and tried my hand at gardening on that patio too.  It’s crazy that it’s taken me this long to switch my way of thinking about the plants I can grow from “heat hardy and likes sun” to “prefers cool and shady” but I think I managed this year.

The clover’s come in nicely, and I think it’s to the point where I can’t call it baby clover anymore, but they’re not to maturity yet, so adolescent clover?  Teenage clover? Either way, I’m impressed with my seed-growing abilities that it’s survived thus far.

Well, minus the spots where Max scratches after he goes potty…

My pansies are still happy, but pansies are always happy until it gets too hot right?  You can’t really see it but there is a pansy in bloom in the bottom left corner of the yard-and-a-half.

The lily-of-the valley appear to be doing well, despite the pot that they’re in being Lulu’s favorite spot to sit and bark at the world (really little girl?  Do we need to have another discussion about the big white box just to the right of the lily container?)

I guess my blueberry bush is doing okay.  I’ve got new growth, and most of last year’s growth has fallen off.  I feel like it should be blooming by now, but, as the only time I’ve ever lived anywhere with soil acidic enough to grow blueberries was on my mission, so I don’t know anything about their growing habits.

I’m remembering that I got my blueberry for my birthday last year, and there wasn’t many leaves or blossoms on it then, and my birthday is still a week away.  So, I’m not going to be too concerned.  Really.

I want to grow more things that I can eat, but I don’t get enough sun for tomatoes, or any other vegetable that I can think of and know does well in containers.

It doesn’t help when I muse out loud stuff like “Do peas need a lot of sun?” and Mom says “Just plant peas at my house, and come down to take care of them.”  Sorry Mom, but driving an hour and a half to take care of someone else’s garden?   That’s just not appealing.

Anyway, I’m quite pleased with my little garden, especially the clover that I’ve grown from seeds, and the blueberry that I kept alive over the winter.

There’s something about growing plants that just makes you happy, and during this rough week I’ve had, I’ve been grateful for my plants, and my little dogs, both of which have done a great job of cheering me up.

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