On being a grown up and being able to successfully grow stuff.

It dawned on me recently that I had placed this subconscious parameter on adulthood that correlated with being able to grow stuff.

And then, it dawned on me that - surprising as it may seem - I can now grow things, and they don't always die. In fact, sometimes they even thrive. (I am, of course, talking about in the garden.)

In fact, I actually look forward to visiting the local garden shops and have even been known to make a beeline to the nursery section of the hardware store. I will browse the punnets of seedlings, peruse the pots (glazed or terracotta?), and imagine various flowering blooms in various corners of our garden.

Now, not everything I have ever grown has been a success. I (still) wouldn't consider myself a 'green thumb'. There have been many sad stick creatures that started off with blossomy potential but faltered under my neglect. The seeds that failed to germinate, or vegetables that started off with promise only to be stunted for reasons I was not aware of.

These failures are so swiftly forgotten when the unthinkable happens, and the garden offers up its gifts: beautiful bright flowers, or beans or juicy leaves, plump fruits, fragrant herbs. They are forgotten upon the delight of including an ingredient (if only even one!) from the garden into a meal, even if every single other thing came from the shops. They're forgotten on the simple thrill of wandering, barefoot, into the veggie patch and biting into a freshly ripened tomato.

Or, on discovering, as I did the other day, that an aloe plant that I transplanted (read: hacked and shoved into a pot) is sending up new growth as it settles into its new home.

(And it's not just outside, either. There's the plant in the bathroom, on the kitchen bench, the mantelpiece...)

The point of this post isn't to be braggy. Not at all! Thing in our garden still get neglected, often wilt, sometimes they die and I have to pull out the tough stalks and toss them into the compost pile.

It's about the joy in the learning, in the trial and error, in the wonder that stuff can grow here in our garden in the desert.

Tomatoes were abundant in our Adelaide Hills veggie garden.

Things that have helped along the way:

• This guide to growing vegetables in arid Central Australia (it has a pull-out poster which is on our fridge!)
• Calendar of what veggies to plant and when
• Resources from the Alice Springs Community Garden. One day I will actually join up and go along!