Gardening: Day 1

I started reading "You Grow Girl", a guidebook to gardening for the urban, younger generation. I've bought plants from time to time (especially this time of year) in hopes of starting a garden, but they have always ended up dying due to the lack of water. This time it'll be different, I would always say to myself. But so far, the results have been the same. The only survivor out of all the plants that I have attempted to grow in the past is Aloe Vera, plus a pot of lily that my roommate (3 roommates ago) had. There is also some lavender that I planted a while ago in the front of the house in the ground, which I'm assuming would not have survived this long if I had planted it in a pot. I just forget to water my plants. It's sad. I feel like a failure every time a leaf turns brown and crispy, crying out for water in this dry, severe SoCal climate.

Ok, so this time, for real. I can do this. That's what I'd like to think. For starters, I actually read a book on gardening this time. The book is really good, and makes understanding about soils much more easier than I had thought. After reading a couple of chapters, I decided to go out and get some plants.

This is what I am starting out with:

- mint [POT]: Can't remember how many time's I've tried to grow this
- lavender [GROUND]: I had a positive experience with it so why not get more
- tomatoes [POT]: Wasn't too sure about this one but maybe actually having some tomatoes to look forward to and harvest might help me water them on a regular basis

- basil [SEED]: Had bought seeds a while back and attempted to grow them once unsuccessfully
- okra [SEED]: Had randomly bought seeds a few weeks ago.

I am worried about the seeds, but I am going to try to keep a journal with photo documentation.

Now that I've put all this up on the Internet, hopefully this will help me keep up my garden.