I'm the person who does everything to make sure plants grow and stay alive; I sing to them, water them, put them in the sunshine, pet their little leaves, but so far, all my efforts have been in vain. Herbs, flowers, trees...they've all ended up droopy and brown, before inevitably shrivelling  up and dying.  That being said, I was a more than a little worried about the fact that our housing and food situation depended directly on our ability to keep things in the garden alive and in full bloom.

This is not an amateur's hobby garden either; It's about an acre, and gravel paths wind through the hundreds of rose bushes, palm trees, wisteria, lilies and Parasol Pines like secret forest paths, while daisies of every color burst from their beds as soon as the sun rises.

I have no idea what 99% of the plants are called, and I'm convinced the project manager of has already caught onto my lack of gardening skills, since  my main task so far has not been planting, or beautifying, but extreme weeding and Broyer-ing (putting it all in a giant composter). 

I am in sole charge of the complete eradication of this clover-looking weed called Oxalis, and frankly, I couldn't be happier. Not only is there an oddly satisfying feeling associated with ripping out weeds with reckless abandon, but I happen to think it plays very well into my particular gardening 'skill set'. 

Jeff on the other hand has been deemed the 'natural-born gardener' and is actually planting plants and restoring our greenhouse to human standards. He gently adds to the land, I rip out weeds like a tornado...Pretty good team huh!? Honestly though, thank God for him or I'm afraid we wouldn't eat!

Speaking of eating, our schedule is very relaxed. We typically start work in the garden around 830 a.m. and finish around 1 p.m. with a HUGE French-style lunch. Salad, baguette, another carb of some sort (this IS France and they love their carbs!), wine from the night before, and fizzy water...needless to say, we're very pleased with the situation, and as long as I stay on weed duty, I'm about 80% sure we'll live to eat another meal!