...I want to have a magnificent garden

Growing up I always had an amazing back yard because my parents loved to garden, and I absolutely loved it. I adored everything about our yard from the pond my Daddy built to the oh-so-climbable magnolia in the front. My best friends and I would pretend we were heroines in our own world my Daddy invented from his stories called "The Purple Dragon"- a mystical place filled with fairies and magic; and it was not a difficult task. My parent's garden and yard was overgrown with flowers and greenery (my mother loves ferns) and vegetables in an awe-inspiring way that made our small southern backyard look magical as soon as the sun started to dip down and cast that magical glowing light on everything.

I loved it so much I always wanted to help. My daddy, being the smart man he was, would allocate a small portion of his vegetable garden for my sister and me to do with what we liked. Every year we would go with him to Lowe's or Home Depot and pick out some seeds or seedlings and plant them in our little plot and I would get so excited that I would be growing the biggest watermelons or tomatoes or whatever it was I picked. Invariably, however I would soon lose interest and forget about my little plot until weeks later, and although my daddy had still taken care of my plants I would be disappointed that after weeks the seeds had only just sprouted or the seedlings hadn't produced a full watermelon. Of course, that was when I was 5 or 6...

But then I got older. We moved to a new house and my parents created an even more stunning garden. My daddy built an even bigger pond and we bought some koi that are now two feet long. There are herbs and roses and trees and ferns and vegetables and flowers and anythings else you can think of. Everyone that comes over says it is the most stunning backyard they have ever seen, and I will be the last to argue with them. So every spring when my parents would go out to start working on the garden, once again I would want to go out to help them. But just like when I was 5 or 6 I would quickly lose interest, only now it was starting to bother me. We moved to this new house when I was in middle school, but now I was in high school and college and I still wasn't able to maintain my interest in gardening. I've always wanted a garden when I had my own place and the fact that I wasn't interested in making mom and dad's garden better really bothered me. I was worried that I wouldn't ever have the garden I wanted because I didn't have the same interest in keeping one maintained that my parents did. I just liked the benefits, not the work that went into it.

I'm guessing that anyone here that is reading this already knows that my husband and I just recently moved to Mobile and are working on settling in to our new apartment. It's taken a while since he's been busy working and I've been busy studying for the bar, but I think we're almost finished.
Since we're in Mobile I don't have classes to go to, I watch all of my lectures online, and to make them more bearable, I have been watching them on my balcony. The view from my balcony was really very bleak, so I decided I needed to do something about it- so I bought some planters and a few seeds and hoped that my past pattern of behavior wouldn't repeat itself and I would pick up a new hobby to help keep me sane in these next few months. I am happy to say that my hopeful hobby has turned into nothing less than an obsession, and I absolutely love it and cannot wait for my balcony to be overgrown with plants and flowers!

I bought this fuchsia and have been keeping it alive. They're tricky and even my parents haven't ever had success with them, but Mobile is so humid that I'm confident I'll be able to keep it alive and flowering. 

I grew these strawberries from seed! I can't wait until they grow fruit, although that won't be for a year or two.

My ficus. I know they are typically indoor plants; however, Lulu likes to hide food in them, and I don't want her digging it up inside, and it really seems to like it outside. It's growing new leaves and everything.

Succulents that I'm rooting. 

These three are rooting, I'm so excited! I plan to make a wreath with them to hang on the balcony door once I have enough of them.

These moss roses are so easy to take care of. They don't need a lot of water love sunlight. I dead-headed them and they transformed into a new plant overnight! None of those blooms were there yesterday, and they popped up overnight after I deadheaded the plant. So little work for such a big reward!

My basil that I grew from seed. I plan to have a whole herb garden. My mom is mailing me clippings of all of her herbs, bur right now all I have is basil and mint. 

My most robust sunflower next to the basil. I can't wait for it to bloom. I grew it from a seed as well.

This is another sunflower and mint. I actually rooted the mint from some sprigs I bought at the grocery store.

                         

A vertical planter I put together. I got the idea from this pin on Pinterest and went with it. I absolutely love it! The top is Impatiens, the second level is... I honestly don't remember. I replaced the third layer with more moss roses (it used to have the same plant as the second layer but in white), and the bottom layer is called Bolivian Jew. I thought watering would be an issue, but it's actually really convenient to take care of. If you water too much on one level it will drain into the next, and so on and so forth. I haven't had any problems with over or under-watering at all, and it looks so pretty!. 

  

And finally, my tomato plant that I grew from seed. Again, I can't wait for it start producing fruit.

One other thing I absolutely love about our home are the stunning trees that surround us. They are breathtaking giants that I can't help stopping to admire every time I see them. 

I wish these pictures could capture their magnificence. They just don't even come close.

They have ecosystems all to themselves. Yes, that would be a tree growing on the tree. 

And if you haven't experienced resurrection ferns yet, they are something you absolutely need to see. When it gets dry they shrivel up like so:

But as soon as it rains, they become luscious and full again, just like nothing has happened. It's amazing. 

I can't wait to see what my balcony becomes, and I can't wait to see what my future yard becomes. Because when I grow up, I want to have a magnificent garden.