Watching two tiny little leafs peeping out of the earth, slowly growing to become a plant, new leaves grow and old ones turn yellow before shedding off. The flowers and the fruits bring along many occasional visitors, worms, bees and butterflies. And yes, the beautiful music of rain drops flapping on the leaves….Nature is hypnotizing.
I must have been 16-17 when I was drawn towards gardening, one reason for it might be that, by this time I had witnessed each and everyone from my family proving their expertise on this particular skill and thus, it was my turn. Digging the earth, weeding, planting, watering everything seemed beautiful to me and I was ready for the amount of dedication and hard work (atleast I thought so!).
Next day, I brought some flowers cuttings from a friend, removed weeds from a patch of land, loosened the soil, prepared the bed, planted the cuttings and watered. That’s it. Within a week the plant died. I tried few more times, yet all the plants died. Then I decided to plant saplings instead of cuttings. Brought some rose plants from a nursery and manure, filled the pot with red soil, added manure, watered….1 week and that too was dead. Its okay, I said to myself and shifted my aim towards easy plants like Tulsi, I sowed the seed at the best possible time and what came out was some edible grasses. I didn’t give up, next plant was alovera… would you believe me?? Yes, the Alovera plant died! Its supposed to be the easiest plant on earth to grow….??
This continued over a stretch of many years. My dream of seeing flowers and butterflies has now reduced to see the plant alive for 1 month/week. You see, the place where I come from, its extremely humid & hot and the quality of soil is amazing, most of the people I know could grow about anything and they dont even realize that. And there I was…..murdering one after the other.
But I never gave up. I would only quit to return more determined. I remember, the first plant that ‘survived me’ was aloe vera! Yes my first taste of victory was a alovera plant.
Back to present, life here in apartments with a small balcony and frequent outstations did slow the process but once a gardener, always a gardener.
In a way, this is the right time to share my journey, as an enthusiastic amateur beginner who has just qualified the test of time and for the first time tasting the sweetness (or bitterness) of her belief! Belief that, like swimming we are born with the skills of planting. Its just the natures way of testing us.
In my tiny balcony, grows green chilies,tomatoes, bitter gourd. Bottle gourd and lemon are on their way. Rose, hibiscus and aparajita (clitoria ternatea), star jasmine, sebati (chrysanthemuma) are some of the flowering plants. In the journey I’ve learnt about the importance and beauty of composting, pollination, the various techniques of growing a plant from seeds and cuttings.
These days there are so many great videos, websites, tutorials and communities to help! I wish I had all this back then.If you are someone like me, thinking, wondering, struggling or you are in a verge of giving up…. just don’t. No amount of lifeless decors will beautify your home and lives the way these greens would. So don’t, its all worth it!
In case you are still wondering how I managed to kill so many plants, which I too think about, I guess… I over did everything. One thing I’ve learnt is that a little less care does no harm to plants as compared to over care!
All the Best!
Just About My Life 