My Mini Garden

Since today is Corpus Christi (a holiday in Trinidad, the official unofficial start of the rainy season, and a popular day for gardening), it seems only fitting that I share my mini garden adventures.

Our new apartment has a tiny outdoor space, and by tiny I mean about 35 square feet. It was used as the dumping ground for trash and construction rubble.

After a few days of serious effort (just when I thought I got all the concrete and brick pieces up, lo and behold, more would surface), I got the trash out and the rubble moved around to the side out of sight.

The next step was to start planting. The majority of my plants come from Kevan’s grandma’s house, where I either propagated new plants from her existing plants or straight up took ones of which she had many. The soil in my tiny garden isn’t the greatest, so I did a little soil amending around the new plants. I needed to make up space anyway, because of course when I dug up the soil to plant them I found more pieces of rubble to take out.

I also found six pretty, unused concrete blocks at Kevan’s grandma’s house. Layered cinder blocks are a popular small garden fad on Pinterest, so I rolled with that idea and stacked them up to be a place for flowers and herbs.

About a month later, my mini garden looks much better even though it still has a long way to go. My flowers aren’t blooming but have got a good start, and for herbs I have basil, rosemary, and chives. I’ll have to move the rosemary once it gets more established because it needs more room to spread its roots.

The rest of the garden is still mostly dirt. I splurged and bought a palm – it’s actually three palms, and they grow spindly so it will be a good fit for this space. The other things I planted are coming along well, and I have some bougainvilleas getting started too. They will provide a lot of color once they get a little bigger. I’m also trying to fill some of the space with grass. Another long process.

At this rate, it’ll be a long time before it’s a completed garden, but I don’t really mind. I like the process, and daydreaming about what plants I could put where. I redesign it in my head all the time, and for now that’s enough 🙂

– Rose