52 Project, Week 20: Favorite Color

52 Project, Week 20: Favorite Color

My favorite color is purple.  It has been for as long as I can remember.  I’ve had rotating secondary favorite colors as well.  Pink, black, blue, green, deep turquoise blue, aqua blue.  I love jewel-toned colors, bright colors, earthy colors.  I love cream and brown in combination with any of my favorite colors.

Funnily enough, I also have a color that I extremely dislike, yellow.  I’m not a fan.  Yellow is one of those colors that make me grimace.  Strange right?  You’d think a color that seems sunshiney would be likable.

Now, I’m not going to go crazy and banish all yellow from my life.  I just won’t go out of my way to purchase or create something yellow.  Plus, yellow isn’t always awful, some flowers look lovely with a touch of yellow in their centers.  Sunflowers are incredibly beautiful and they are very yellow.  Yellow leaves in combination with reds, greens, and oranges in the fall are also pleasing to the eye.

When I was very young, I loved rainbows.  My whole room was done in the Rainbow Bright theme.  Color, and lots of it, was wonderful.  So although I love purple as my favorite color, truly, I love a wide range of the whole rainbow.  My house is filled with color.  My wardrobe is organized by rainbow in my closet.  Yes, I wear almost every color, except yellow!

Despite my love of a variety of colors, I always seem to pick purple flowers for my garden.  When the garden center is having a sale, I can’t be as picky with what I end up with.  By the time the sales roll around, most of the flowers have fallen off.  This ends up being exciting for me, seeing what colors will bloom when my plants are nursed back to health.

This year I got a fantastic find with a lovely purple datura.  I managed to get a large amount of purple alyssum, some more pastel, some a rich, darker purple.  I also got pinkish purple petunias and dark purple salvia.  Everything else was a surprise color.

It always amazes me how many different shades there are of one color.  I love seeing all of the beautiful variations in flowers.   I have only seen a small fraction of the flowers in the entire world!  I would love to see them all!  I can only imagine the joy that God had in making them.   I feel so thankful that he created this beauty for us to enjoy.

What is your favorite color? Join us in the photography challenge! We’d love to see your images!
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I Turned My Brown Thumb Into a Green Thumb

I Turned My Brown Thumb Into a Green Thumb

I have always joked about having a brown thumb instead of a green one.  I have good intentions with plants, but I usually kill most of them.  My problem was that I watered them too much.  For me, caring for a plant equaled watering it.  I literally loved them to death.

I did manage to keep hardy plants alive, to my great joy.  My brother got me a Philodendron as a gift when I was 13.  It’s the only plant that has survived this long.

My parents were great gardeners.  As a child, they had a huge garden in our yard.  I can remember working with them to weed, pick off pests, gather ripe plants and care for my own little garden plot. And occasionally, they had me get to lawn care and landscaping near me to make the garden more aesthetic-appealing. My favorites were the raspberries bordering 2 sides of the garage and the strawberries.

When I was given my own little corner plot, I planted Shasta daisies, echinacea, and zinnia among a few other flowers.  I loved flowers and the butterflies that they drew to our yard.  My Mother had flower gardens in raised planters that my Father built all over our property.

After my own children were born, I gave plants a renewed interest.  I tried a few easy house plants, a few palms, some morning glories outside during the warm months, hanging petunias or impatiens.  I tried peppers many times but they rarely produced peppers and if they did, were never large enough to eat.    I’ve overloved and killed many orchids over the years.

With the addition of extreme allergies to my life, I’ve had to learn to grow my own food.  Organic food from health food stores is usually incredibly expensive and is not always guaranteed to be corn free.  The safest option is home grown because I control all of the factors of what my food is exposed to.

When I first moved to this house, my Mom helped me plant a small outdoor garden.  The weeds overtook it to my great frustration.  Creeping Charlie choked out most of my plants.  I did get some tomatoes and small ears of corn (ironic, right? This was pre-corn allergy.). After that, I gave up planting in the ground.  Nate built me a planter around the mulberry tree in the backyard, which I grew flowers and hostas in, for an easy to maintain, decorative garden.

Inside, I grew potted plants.  I tried basil by the sink but I ended up overwatering it.  My next sink plant was rosemary, which, as it turns out, LOVES being overwatered.  In fact, if I don’t water it often, it starts to die.  I also grow potted plants on my porch and bring them inside over winter.  My theory was, if they die, that’s ok because they would have died if I had left them outside to die by frost.  If they live, I have another plant to enjoy.

This last year, my gardening skills have grown, as has the number of plants in and out.  I have several plants that live inside year round, Outside, on my porch, my number of potted plants has grown. After installing a critter fence, it was clear that the plants where staying healthier and growing faster. Those pesky critters can really make a dent in most plants. Those interested in the specific fence used, I found it here. I renewed my attempt for ground grown plants.  I planted several things around the porch outside and started a new side garden.  I’ve also planted raspberries and blueberries along the fence.

I am not an expert gardener.  I have, however, turned my brown thumb into a green one with persistence and determination.  I’ve never given up.  If my plants die, I try again.  I do more research. The best way I’ve learned is by experience and trial and error.

I recommend everyone give gardening a try.  It is so rewarding.  When I eat food from my own garden, I have a great pride and satisfaction that I have never gotten from bought food.

If you are afraid of killing plants, don’t let that deter you!  Keep trying!  Start with potted plants.  Try something easy to maintain, like impatiens, petunias, philodendrons, or palms like I did.  Otherwise, try checking out the end of the year plant sales that most greenhouses have.  You can usually get plants cheap or for free.  Use the mindset that if it dies, at least you tried.  Research what you can do differently next time.

Do you care for any plants?  What do you grow?  Have you also overcome a brown thumb or has gardening come naturally to you?

Check out my video for a tour of my garden!