Confessions of a PLANT KILLER!

Part of my battle to live a greener existence is my talent for killing plants.  I often try and fail at maintaining houseplants and I’m certain that I’m not alone.  But I can’t help but continue my efforts.  There’s something so creepy about living in a space that doesn’t have anything alive in it other than its occupants.  Plants make my rented apartment feel a little more homey and not quite so temporary.  I hope that by learning to keep houseplants, I'll learn some transferable green thumb skills to help me grow more of my own food.

Despite my best intentions, I don’t always succeed.   The garden experiment is part of my road to recovery as a plant killer (although that’s not going so well – more to come).  Another part of it is a quest to green up my home life with an indoor herb garden.  For some, this is an easy feat.  For me, it is an exercise in will.

When I first moved into my apartment last year, I was determined to have a mini herb garden.  I had grand ambitions with eco features in mind.  Instead of purchasing pots for my herbs, I fashioned my own by using a can opener to remove the tops of pop cans and planted my seeds.  I excitedly watched my herbs sprout and then proceeded to kill them.  Too much water, then too little water, too little space and then eventually, complete disinterest.  A bona fide recipe for disaster.

This year was supposed to be different.  I’ve managed to keep a houseplant alive for 2 years now and I was confident that there’d be hope for me.  But alas, another green fail.  I remain a plant killer.

It all started off so well…

The herb garden went from the simple basil, parsley, chive trio to a rather ambitious array of things I don’t even know what to do with.  I blame the lovely ladies at the Glen View Greenhouse south of Miquelon Lake for the extra encouragement and excellent sales job.

English Thyme and Peppermint - Before

The massive herb invasion included: 2 pots of basil, 1 Italian parsley, 1 English thyme, 1 Greek Oregano, 1 Chocolate Mint, 1 Peppermint, 1 Lemon Balm, 1 Lemon Verbena.  I’m also attempting chives from seeds and a pot of parsley from seeds that ended up getting planted before my epic trip to the greenhouse.  I really don’t know what I’m going to do with it all but at least my apartment will smell awesome – if I can keep them alive.

The first casualties have been the thyme and peppermint.

After : (

Unfortunately I was overzealous and had them situated in my west facing front window which gets lots of sun.  Too much sun apparently.  I returned home from a trip to Halifax (only 4 days!!!) to find them completely fried.  My attempts to resuscitate them have been, so far, unsuccessful.

I supposed I can also count the chives as a casualty since they haven’t bothered to sprout.

Everything else seems to have survived so I guess it counts only as a partial fail.  And I have managed to use my fried herbs even if the plants are dead.  But it’s not what I had in mind and certainly not exactly the best way to start things off…

Are you a plant killer?  Have you tried to rehabilitate yourself?