First step - Keeping plants alive

Ever since I was a kid, I always imagined myself having a fruit, herb and vege garden. However, I never thought I would be so bad at keeping plants alive.

Last year I thought it would be a great idea to grow tomatoes from seed. I was able to get passed germination and have two little leaves on each of the fragile stalks. Then I completely forgot to water and look after them.

This was the outcome:

Dirt. Completely dead plants.

Furthermore, at the same time my mother gave me 6 pots with different plants and herbs including rosemary, oregano, mint and lavendar.

Unfortunately this is what has become of them:

After nearly a year of them sitting in the pots, dead, I decided to pull them out so I could start afresh.

It wasn't all gloom. My basil and parsley plants are still alive, even after so much abandon.

This is year I am determined to keep plants alive and have them bloom.

My first step was to cut off all the flowers from the basil plant and snip off bits. From that I was able to collect some seeds and clippings. I am hoping I can grow more basil from both sources. Below are the clippings I have put some water. If all goes well, in 2 weeks I'll have roots.

In my pantry I also found some garlic that were sprouting like crazy. So I decided to put these in soil and see what happens. Hopefully I won't need to buy any more garlic in a few months.

Next I decided to buy a specific container that contains tomato seeds and special soil. It comes with instructions, so I am having a go at growing tomatoes from seed again, with some assistance. I bought liquid feed to help with growth, so hopefully this time something will come out of this.

I found myself on a role, so additionally I bought this dwarf lemon tree:

I managed to re-pot it. Instructions for it let me know that it doesn't need much watering and it likes a lot of sun. Don't see how I will fail with this one.

I also bought different varieties of lettuce and planted them in the pots my other herbs died in. I added premium soil that retains water and has fertiliser in it, so hopefully these ones won't die.

Below you will see my other plants. I bought chocolate mint (top left) and youngberry (top right).
Also in these pots is garlic, lettuce and parsley (the survivor).

I quite like the chocolate mint plant because it gives off a really nice aroma. If I manage to keep it alive I am planning on chopping it up and adding it to my home made chocolate. Hoping this is enough motivation for me to look after it.

I will document my progress in this blog. If I can keep these plants alive, anyone can!

I am quite determined to achieve this. My partner let me know that before I can have children I need to be able to pass 2 steps.

1. Keep plants alive and look after them.
2. Keep pets alive and look after them.

I am still on the plant stage, so hopefully I can pass this first step!