STORIES BEHIND GARDENING

STORIES BEHIND GARDENING

It all started 6 years back when I was done with my Master. After years of continuous hard work, it was time to stop, take a deep breath, a break, and introspect. It was time to restart completing the BUCKET LIST where gardening was on number 2 after photography.

I began in a rented house in September 2016 with 3 plants in earthen pots decorated by me and my 2 and ½ years old son using his drawing colors and my nail paints that were bought for marriage but never used. He used to water them daily, sometimes twice or thrice a day, and keenly waited for flowers (even though two of them were nonflowering plants) to bloom. I used to keep them on the terrace daily so as to prevent root rot and get more sun because it was impossible to make him understand.

From September 2016 to December 2016, I was grown by 15 plants. As of today, after 5 years, I have 179 at home, 4 in the office, and 232 gifted so far. Yes, that’s true and I am very precise about it because I maintain a diary for my plants as I do for my kids. Actually, I found them very similar. Like we have innumerable stories to tell about kids, their mistakes, achievements, and failures, I have the same for my plants. I know their birthdays, from where and when were they bought/plucked/gifted, repotted, pruned, propagated, nurtured, the position changed, starved, overwatered, and died. In my future blogs, I will share the stories one by one along with mentioning a few basic and easiest steps to grow and nurture them. I hope you like it as much as I did while experiencing and living it.

I have visited commercial nurseries as far as 20 kilometers from my place to home-based startups as close as 800 meters. I prefer to buy budget plants after a thorough search. I have read a lot, consulted many, bought variety, experimented myself, and then written about it. Except for 8 plants, I never went beyond 250 Rs per plant and most of the time it was between 50-150 Rs.

In 2017, my New Year resolution was to increase them by 50 per year and I am proud of myself to fulfill it till now. In 2018, I decided to buy once monthly as I firmly believe that a part of my income must be spent on nurturing our hobbies. But I did it for 7 months only. The reason being, I did some very successful propagation and the results were amazing, persistent, and economical. I was addicted to it. I started searching my balcony very frequently for propagation. In that mind state, I made mistakes and lost a few of my favorite plants, but it taught me so much, as I mentioned in the previous blog Reason to love Gardening that gardening teaches us lots of life lessons. It taught me patience, to let go, not to lose hope, consistency and determination. It gave me quality time with my kid and myself. It increased my love for nature. You know plants look most beautiful just before sunrise bathing in that amber color and dancing with the breeze on the music of melodiously chirping birds. It allowed me to enjoy the quietude of a fun-loving, extremely busy, and full of celebrations Sikh community that sleeps after midnight. I also enjoyed the morning chants of Gurudwara and  Shri Krishana Temple situated nearby. To witness all this, I started waking up at 4:30 am and that gave me 1 and ½ to 2 more hours than the rest of the other people.

I do visit nurseries these days but not monthly. I visit them not only for shopping but to admire nature, variety of plants that they have and I can’t, smell that mixed fragrance and observe various methods of propagation and pruning. I visit nurseries when I crave to buy plants like many people do for clothes/food/cosmetics and so on. I visit nurseries like people visit temples on birthdays, without failure and gift same to myself.  I have seen people laughing at me when I say “I need a house with balcony to accommodate 200 plants and landlord who can water them in my absence”. And I am very lucky to get such landlords till now. I owe them a lot. I owe them my plants.

These are the stories that were always there but occasionally expressed in this way, although simple but fascinating that increased my passion for gardening and inspired me to be a better version of myself, the best so far, the PEACEFUL ONE.

NEXT READ- Diary of a Snake plant (Coming Soon).


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gardening, stories, plants, gift, birthday, kids, bucket list, nursey, snake plant, passion, propagation.,
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