CW 18: Plants
"To plant a garden is to believe in tomorrow" - Audrey Hepburn
When I moved into my first apartment, a friend of mine gifted me a plant, that I named after them, let's call her Patricia for anonymity's sake. Patricia stayed alive for a bit because I felt obliged to keep her alive. A few months later however, Patricia was basically on her deathbed. My lovely mom came to her rescue. She took Patricia into her care and essentially saved her from dying. Thanks mom <3. Later when I moved into my current apartment I got another plant, out of pure naivety. I named him Bob, or Robert when he was being a bad plant, bought him a nice pot, but really it wasn't meant to be. Unfortunately he passed away a few months later. After Patricia had come back from rehab, I managed to keep her alive and we've become quite good friends ever since. In fact, she is still alive and thriving even more than ever. So as you can see, I didn't really have a great relationship with plants, but here is the story of how they are my weekly obsession now.
When a few weeks back I celebrated my birthday, at my party, two of my friends gifted me one of those little flower pots with some seeds to plant at home. It even was a sunflower, which is my favorite flower. I was determined to make it grow. Like the brave girl I am, I bought some soil and planted the seeds in the tiny pot. I neatly watered it every day with my spray bottle and to my (and everyone's) surprise it started sprouting. I was telling everyone I met about my achievement. I mean look how cute! How can you not mention this to everyone? They grow up so fast *sigh*. *eyes watering*.
A few days later, when I was at the supermarket with my sister and brother in law (who is also very much into plants and gardening), I took the next step. They were selling a set of cultivation boxes and various seeds were placed right in my face. Capitalism really popped off that day ladies. Eventually, I went home with a brand new cultivation box, tomato seeds, cucumber seeds and bell pepper seeds that were ready to be planted. This cute little project sprouted only a few days later and they were growing like crazy. And on a nice sunny Wednesday, walking by a little store, I couldn't help myself but to get some zucchini seeds, parsley seeds and basil seeds to plant into another cultivation box.
Fast forward to a few weeks later and I have now bought two raised garden beds for my balcony. One is filled with half of my tomato and pepper sprouts and the other is to be filled with the other half. In two lower pots I have planted three zucchinis and three cucumbers. I wouldn't say that they are the happiest ever, but my brother in law and mentor in this hobby says they are stressed and I should give them time. So fingers crossed everyone, that they don't end up like Bob and the journey to home-grown cucumbers, tomatoes, bell peppers and zucchini can continue. There is still hope with the plants I didn't have space for in my beds on the balcony. They stayed inside in little decomposable pots, that can easily be transferred to the outside, which is probably going to happen soon (if I ever make it home while it's light and don't have other plans). However, it seems like the plants staying inside, are doing really well and they look very happy. So I still have five zucchinis, five cucumbers, four tomatoes, four bell peppers, eight basils and eight parsleys that are up for the race to become the pride of my home-grown veggies.
In summary my dear friends: If you are one of those people that only waters their flowers once and then hopes for the best, there is still hope for you to become a gardener. The cool thing about this, is that really it doesn't take up much time or money and it's all kind of on a trial and error base. I've had a lot of fun and this new hobby has given me not only the feeling of achievement, but also make me be excited for tomorrow and it's cool to think that...
...it all started with a sunflower seed.