THE BLACK THUMB CURSE

Hi everybody,

This week I won't beat around the bush, cause I have an urgent matter to deal with, and your help, tips and tricks are welcomed. So,listen.

I think I'm under a curse. Yes, guys, a curse, and I'm choosing my words carefully, but let's call a spade a spade.

I'm so desesperate that I have even thought of looking for a kind of witch doctor to break that long-lasting curse. No way! If there are any in Brittany, nobody can give a heads-up to find one.

You see I'm really grasping at straws, but my sanity is at stake.

So please, don't click off the page. Let me explain all my trouble, cause you are my last hope, my last resort. I really want to turn over a new leaf, and things to come up roses again.

Don't get me wrong. I'm not wallowing in self-pity. My life is still blooming great, but by next Spring I really need things to change to forget about the Black Thumb Curse.

Never heard about it ?

No, no, it's not a thriller, or any kind of cliffhanger!

Unfortunately, cause if it were, my life in the country would be a bed of roses.

But as the saying goes, there's no rose without a thorn.

Still can't guess what the Black Thumb Cuse is ?

Look ! Within a few lines, plenty of idioms about flowers, doesn't it ring a bell ?

You give up ? OK, then.

Well, the Black Thumb Curse is when fragrant verbs such as ' bud, bloom and blossom ' are swept away and let ' wilt, wither and dry up ' rule the roost.

Yes, guys, that's it. You've guessed .

All my expectations to become a master gardener are fading away, cause I was born with a black thumb. Unlike my mother who would grow whatever she wanted on her balcony, I ruined all my plantings.

I have to face the facts : I'm not a person with a green thumb.

I can almost pinpoint when I started developping the Black thumb Curse.

I was living in Paris, and one day I decided to grow herbs in a window box. It would spice up my blander dishes (yes, I was already a lousy cook) and give a boost to my landscape (a view on the roofs is romantic, but not really greeny).

Every day I was looking out for my basil, marjoram and savory seeds to grow out.In vain ...

One morning all my hopes were wiped out in a wingbeat by a pigeon sitting cosily in my window-box. When I opened the widow, it flew away, leaving an egg behind it.

One egg was not enough for an omelet, and anyway, there was not the single herb left  to liven it up...

When settling down here in Brittany, I should have remembered that first unfortunate step into  the Green Thumb World.

But you know how gung-ho I can be ...

The first white buds and long grass-like stems on the lawn thrilled me till Mr Google's verdict made me fall apart :

  " Wild garlic. An invasive species reproducing prolifically from 

     underground bulbs. A real curse ".

Once rid of those pungent, garlicky invaders, I thought I was done with my efforts. My foot !! 

Four-leaf clovers sneaked on the scene, and called the shots.

Another invasive species, and believe me or not, all four-leaf clovers aren't good luck charms. Not at all , cause, once I had dug out all those trespassers , the deers indulged themselves and nibbled all the rose buds I had pampered and fed with chopped banana peels mixed in their compost.

I had managed to keep my rose bushes healthy all throughout Winter, but I should have known that the Black Thumb Curse never leaves you quiet and blooming.

Since then, I have tried to do my best, but the burgeoning gardener I am is about to turn into a self-proclaimed Black Thumb for ever.

So, I'm looking forward to getting your helping hand and green thumb 

on my email address :

perkybusybee@gmail.com

In the meantime, don't forget : BE PERKY !