My grandmother gave me my first African Violet when I was about thirteen years old. From that time until about a year ago, there was never a time in my life when I didn’t have at least one violet plant, often quite a few. Some I had for a good many years. When we had our house painted two years ago this coming summer, it was the hottest part of the summer, and they put brown paper over all our windows and doors for six weeks—they were supposed to be done in two weeks, might have been if they’d been here every day. Humbug. (Can you tell this is still a sore spot?) I couldn’t get out onto the deck to water the plants out there (tons of them), and except for the succulents they all died. Between not being able to see out, living and working in a sepia environment, and having fifty or more of my favorite plants die, some that I’d had for quite a few years, I was in quite a funk for a long time. See all those empty pots on the deck? Every single one of them used to be full to over-flowing with lush herbs and cheery flowers and bulbs. Most of the houseplants that lived through the brown paper episode died because in my plant depression I didn’t water them. That included the violets, which hurt tremendously, made me feel worse.

Though I’ve long since recovered from the blue funk that descended on me, I’ve been reluctant since then to get too involved with plants again. It’s been awful. The first sign that I started feeling a bit more hopeful regarding plants was when I snatched up this little African Violet plant that I saw in a grocery store a couple months ago. It naturally stopped blooming as soon as I brought it home, but look! Flower buds. I peeked, and there are smaller ones hidden below the leaves in a couple more places. I rewarded the violet for its hard work by watering it this morning.

Another sure sign that I’m on the road to plant recovery is the purchase of some posies and a new rosemary plant for the deck. You can see them waiting patiently there on the bar.

I was in such a good mood after seeing that blossom on the violet that I got to work on them right after breakfast. I got my trowel, sack of dirt, plant food stakes, and took those and the new plants out on the deck.

I started by digging at a bunch of soil in one of those large pots, adding water to it, mixing it about a bit. It felt good. The soil still has a lot to give, so I used some of it to plant one of the Karma Blue Butterfly pansies in Grandma’s bright blue Bauer flower pot. Yes, the same grandmother who got me started in gardening with that original violet used to own this old glazed pot. I then dug a cobalt blue pot that I’ve had since I lived in the City out of the pile, and put the red primrose in it.

I poked at the dirt that was left in a large white pot that I’ve successfully grown pansies in before, and that dirt had had it. Out it went. More dirt from the large clay pot went into it, along with a bunch of new soil from the bag, and all six Velour Frosted Chocolate pansies. Only one currently has a blossom, which is fine with me. More energy will go to the roots, which is good for now.

Back to the large pot, I dumped the rest of the soil from the bag into it, got it all nice and wet, made a whole in the center, and put the rosemary plant there. I didn’t have enough dirt, so dug around in another large pot. It’s dirt felt fine. I got it good and wet, then transferred it into the pot with the rosemary. I started out with the rosemary in the center of the pot. I swear I did! I don’t know how I always manage to get large plants off center, but I do. Gads. Oh well. It’ll be fine. It’s not rocket science. Doesn’t have to be perfect.

I wanted to put the rest of the Karma Blue Butterfly pansies in one of those big pots, but ran out of good soil at that point. Need to go get another bag.

Everything on the deck that’s still alive has been watered. The new plants are all fed, except the rosemary. I need to get a different kind of plant food for it. The stuff I have encourages blooms, and that’s not what I want from rosemary. It’s the leaves that are yummy.

The deck is still pretty much a disaster, but it’s better. For the first time in almost two years it shows promise.