I have been known to experiment with many things in my free time. I guess people assume that because I am a writer that I have tons of free time. While that is not entirely true, it is true that my hours are unusual and that I do manage to find time for a variety of hobbies that many of my friends laugh at me for. My latest venture is to start an herb garden in my backyard.
I have been trying my hand at gardening on and off for the past few years without much success. In fact, no one that knows me thinks of me as having much of a greenthumb at all. So when I announced that I was determined on having a successful herb garden not too many people took notice or gave me a sense that they believed in me to accomplish it.
What I loved about the idea of creating an herb garden was that it seemed much easier and much less consuming that having a vegetable garden or even a flower garden. I have no idea where that idea came from, but by harboring it my head I became more and more convinced that an herb garden was truly the best bet for me.
So I went to my local library and checked out every single resource on creating a herb garden that I could find. I spent the next few weeks reading these books any time I got. I made visits to several gardeners that I knew and I was online in any spare moment outside of that. I wanted to learn all there was to know about an herb garden so that I didn't fail at my attempt when spring came and it was time to plant my herbs.
Even my family members laughed at my latest pursuit. I think they might have placed bets behind my back as to how successful or unsuccessful I would be with the herb garden. I think most of them doubted that any of the food I cooked this summer would utilize the spring's worth of herbs that I had planted.
I proved everyone wrong. Dead wrong. My herb garden turned into the biggest success of any hobby project that I have ever attempted. I feel pretty good about my success and I have loved adding fresh herbs to many of the meals I have prepared this summer so far. I guess perhaps I have a little more down time than many people I know, but that is fine by me. They get to reap the benefits of all my hard work when I pass around baskets of herbs from my herb garden that everyone can enjoy.