When Rand and I first moved in, I was very excited about this little patch of garden area on our patio. I was going to grow herbs! And maybe some flowers! I decided to let it go the first year, because with the wedding and everything, I didn’t expect to have time to get it going.

So last year, I went and got some gardening supplies, and made an attempt to dig in. I failed. I found the dirt hard, filled with rocks and roots, and basically impossible for me to deal with.

And then this happened:

The condo association had this new fencing put in, and in the process, they left my little “garden” (which was empty, but not in horrible condition) in a mess that was going to make it even more difficult for me to deal with.

But instead of calling anyone to complain, I just left it like that.

Now, if you’ve ever been a part of a condo/homeowners association, you’ll know that they like things a certain way. Passive-aggressive memos started to appear in the newsletter about keeping your garden area maintained, or else pay to have it removed and have grass planted in its place.

Well, anyway…I called my parents, who are slightly more green-thumby than I am, and we arranged for a weekend for them to come and visit and participate in a festival of gardening! That happened this past weekend, and this is the result:

We planted a collection of herbs (parsley, sage, rosemary, thyme, basil, lavender, and cilantro, which I added later), some flowers, and a lilac bush.

I also bought this hanging basket:

We also bought a cover for our grill, so we could leave it out and actually, y’know, use it.

So yay for productive weekends, awesome parents, and really cool aunts who buy herbs for us. 🙂