Reviving my Green Thumb

It's a little rusty. My green thumb, that is. When we were younger and starting our family, the Caveman and I both took pride in our gardening - planting vegetable and herb gardens, selecting native trees and getting the kids involved. We really enjoyed learning about various plants and watching things grow.

The only problem we had was that we lived out of town, in an area with very little rainfall, so it was hard to keep much of it alive - I built up some pretty impressive arm muscles carrying buckets of household water to the plants, after collecting it from the washing machine or shower. We couldn't afford to "waste" our good drinking water from the rainwater tank on it. It costs a lot of money to buy a load of water.

Unfortunately, between moving house a couple of times since then, raising the family and getting back into the workforce, we've both found we have less time and interest in gardening. As rental tenants especially, we just sort of maintain what's already there, with no real interest in adding to it at our own expense. Added to that is the fact that we are again living in the same area we were in all those years ago, relying on tank water with very little rainfall, so the garden really does look a bit neglected.

Recently we had a visit from the owner of our house, just to check on some work they'd had done. While they were here we talked about the gardens and agreed that they need some rejuvenating. After some discussion about how to do it as cheaply as possible, we came to an agreement about groundcovers. In particular, the succulent varieties. I usually struggle to keep groundcover plants alive, especially during the dry months, so I had kind of given up on them. I've never been a big fan of succulents either - I can't explain why. I'm not really prejudiced about plants, I promise! - but I've agreed it might be the answer to sprucing up the garden with very little money or water necessary.

As it turns out, lots of other people love succulents and most are very generous about sharing them. They are a great choice for a tight budget because you only need to take a small cutting (or break off a leaf) and plant it, and voila! a new plant grows. I'm actually enjoying gardening again, watching my baby cuttings grow and transplanting them into the mature gardens as soon as they're ready. It's not taking too much water to get them established, so most of them are doing well so far.

Fingers crossed my green thumb continues to thrive!