I love gardening. Spring is beautiful with all of its new plants. I want to help create that kind of life in my corner of the world too.

There’s just one problem. I’m not great at growing plants. I don’t have much of a green thumb. I’ve killed a lot of plants. But I want to try and keep trying in the hopes that someday I will have a flourishing garden.

This year I put in different approaches to hopefully get different results.

First of all, I bought a standing greenhouse from Aldi. (I have become an Aldi lover and shopper for all the things they provide at great prices. I can’t get everything from there that I need, but I can get most food and some other cool products there. I may end up doing a post on Aldi someday.) It zips and has shelves to protect from unwanted parts of the environment– namely pests that would try to eat my plants. The material is thick and durable as well. It’s staked down so it doesn’t blow over when it storms.

The next thing I did was to incorporate compost. We started composting a little bit this year. We have a little compost bin that can sit on a countertop or in a cabinet. It was full, so we spread that into the planters that I bought. The first few days, the whole plant setup smelled awful because of the compost. But as the compost decomposes, I know it will help the plants grow and gain nutrients.

I also added other fertilizers. We had bought a fertilizer pump on clearance, so we also put that into the soil. I make a lot of eggs, so I put the eggshells into the carton for the nutrients. I want to make sure my plants grow big, strong, and healthy.

A third thing that I did is put them in a part of my yard where they would get more sunlight. Last year, I had plants on my back patio. They were great for being protected, but they didn’t get a lot of sunlight because of how my house sits. As a result, they died.

Learning from my past mistakes helps me to see what I can do better. As a result, this year, I’m already seeing sprouts in my garden. Many of the things that I have planted are growing. I’m trying to provide them the care they need so that they can become healthy. It is so exciting to see the plants grow! I’m hopeful that I can reap their benefits when they get big enough.

In the meantime, I’m working to get better at caring for my plants. You could say that I’m trying to “grow a green thumb,” hence the title of this post. It’s definitely a process, but I have so many ideas. I just need to make sure I can keep the plants alive this year!