My husband and I have a dream to one day own a hobby farm… With a whole growing list of things we want to have or try on our farm, including bees, various types of gardens, chickens, beef cows, horses, herbs etc.. etc.. We want to experiment with trying to tap our own maple trees, grow our own fruits to make drinks, and ultimately find a way to have our very own “farm to table” situation. We want to have a home and space that invites people to come, stay, have fun, and feel loved in a slew of different ways. But, many of those dreams are still a ways off, and I(we) obviously do not have many of the skills and knowledge required for the implementation of this dream to take place! So, subsequently, the goal right now is to learn how to grown plants in an urban situation!… i.e. potted plants!

Currently, we live in what I have affectionately deemed, a “Hobbit Home” because it is a small townhome with not many windows for sunlight. It is the perfect place for our stage of life right now, with a bonus that it is very affordable (for the metro DC area)! But, since we live in an urban area, and there is almost no back “yard” space to speak of, and a literal non-existent front space. I am aiming to learn how to grow and harvest herbs, and easy to garden potted plants!

We started on this idea a little late in the season, so while we bought a bunch of plants to help us get started, many of those pepper plants produced one pepper each, and have looked mildly like they’re dying since! lol

However, there are a few plants I’m super proud of already! Our Spearmint was a cut off/transplant from my mother in law, to my best friend’s place, then a second cut off/transplant from there to us! It is slowly taking off and I am stoked! Our Parsley, Basil, Thai Basil, Rosemary, and Peppermint plants are doing decently; not necessarily flourishing yet, but showing promise!

Currently, the thing I am the most excited about is our garlic. My self-imposed goal is to never buy garlic again! This idea came about because we received a few full cloves of Garlic in a meal subscription service we tried for a little while, and I decided to try to re-grow it since otherwise I was concerned it would likely go bad before we could use it! Watching it grow has been so fun and because it changes DAILY, which makes it exciting!

I have started picking and dehydrating our herbs (including not-pictured Garlic), crushing or mincing them, and storing them for use!

We also added an Aloe plant, Pineapple plant, a Fig tree, AND a Venus Fly Trap to our bunch! Each one creating a different level of understanding of water/sunlight/nutrients etc… But, you know what else we’ve gained with these things? Gnats. Stupid little rapidly multiplying annoying flying bugs.. However, our Venus Flytrap is FLOURISHING because of the bugs. lol #circleoflife
Also, fun fact, a Venus Flytrap needs water, but not really for nutrients, that’s where the bugs come in. However, the best water for it is distilled. And, apparently, distilled is the only water that is sold out at every store I go to! So, I’ve started creating my own distilled water for it. Bougie plants.

I’m really enjoying the learning process, the total failures, and I’ve slowly been gaining knowledge via basic Googling, following Creativity Explained on Instagram, and trial and error. I figure if I can get good at some of the basics of herbs and potted gardens, then that’s one more hobby farm element that is easy to implement when the time comes!

Thanks for joining in our dabbling journey!