Tiny Green Thumbs

“But where our hearts truly lie is in peace and quiet, and good tilled earth. For all Hobbits share a love of things that grow.”  Lord of the Rings – Fellowship of the Rings

Although we may not have much peace and quiet around our house today we did try to have some good tilled earth. The boys got their tiny green thumbs good and dirty too.
This quote from Lord of the Rings always makes me give an internal sigh of frustration at my own lack of green thumb. I’ve always felt a strong kinship to the jolly little Hobbits in no small part because I share their literal and figurative closeness to the earth.

Also, sharing Hobbits’ love of food we enjoy cooking at our house and I’m always shaking my head at the ridiculous price of fresh herbs at the grocery store. So, we decided to plant basil, thyme, oregano, and peppermint. I also read that these were easy to grow-another vote in their favor for our first attempt at gardening.

Maxwell and Patrick were both so excited that I was actually encouraging them to dig in the dirt. The gardening gloves I got them were so laughably insufficient at keeping them clean that I quickly surrendered to the chaos of “good tilled earth” all over our persons and just gave us all a good hosing before going back into the house.

My mother has a lovely set of green thumbs that I can only hope the boys will inherit from her. I struggle to keep desk cactus alive longer than a week. I’m sure I’ll be calling my parents for tips on the regular, but I’m not going to be too upset if I kill everything and have to start over. Even if we don’t get any caprese salad or herb marinated chicken out of our little potted garden I hope to least teach the boys that plants need soil, sun, water, and attention to grow.