Gardening and Greens

The beginning…

I love plants and flowers a lot. My plants give me a lot of happiness in my life. It all began way back in 2015 when my first tryst with Gardening and Greens began. My living arrangement was a tiny one bedroom flat in the desert state of India, Rajasthan. Jaipur, the capital of Rajasthan has a hot and dry weather. Growing greens and maintaining a garden in Jaipur’s climate was a fun and tough challenge.

In those days, my sister would send me lots of photos of her green and flowering balcony garden. That was a source of great inspiration for me.

My flat had a small balcony which received a lot of sunlight. I started buying small potted plants. The first few plants were a bougainvillea, tulsi, portulaca and other easy to grow plants.

My mother would go for evening walks in the lawns and return everyday with a new plant cutting or a seedling for us to plant.

As I saw the tiny plants growing and responding to my care, something stirred in my heart. I felt a sudden surge of happiness and satisfaction on seeing the response to my unconditional love for the plant babies.

Mother gave me the idea to sow some mustard seeds in a small pot. Within a few days pretty, tiny, green seedlings appeared, which grew to be a beautiful mustard greens.

Winter garden

My passion for gardening and greens began to grow with leap and bounds. Along came the winter months which brought along the petunias, dianthus, geranium and roses. . The winter lovelies made my tiny balcony a soothing site for my tired and weary eyes.

My life was going through many upheavals in those days. The green plants kept me grounded, the flowers gave me hope. They assured me that life has meaning. They helped me to keep moving ahead.  

The Change..

Life took different turns, destiny smiled and I got married to my best friend and the love of my life. My passion for gardening continued to grow now with the support of my partner in all crimes! We shifted to a different rented apartment and all our plant babies shifted with us.

In addition to the balcony garden, indoor plants came into my life. Areca palm, Peace Lily, Arelia, Christmas Tree to name a few. That winter we had close to 80 potted plants and things were getting a bit out of hand. Many of our weekends were spent tending and caring for them. Each of them had different requirements. I used to feel like a “ Plant Whisperer” as I spent time with each of them trying to figure out their needs and their problems.

That winter was very rewarding for me as a gardener. I had shifted my focus in to flowering plants and now we had a very colourful garden filled with roses of various colours, pots bursting with multi-coloured petunias, phlox, dianthus, gazinias, kalanchoes and what not!

Life lessons

I realised that the challenges I faced in my gardening and greens journey in the early phases is very similar to what we go through in life in general. Tough climate, insects & pests, hard water. There were a 1000 and one hurdles, which had to be identified and each tackled individually in the best way possible.

Life is the same I now understand. You just have to identify the problem and deal with it in the best way possible. Wallowing in misery and giving up never helps. Rather in hard times the best way forward is to keep faith, work hard and the beautiful flowers of life will surely bloom one day.

My plant babies have made me realise there is great power in unconditional love and devotion. If any of them are unwell , I actually give them a pep talk and assure them about the depth of my love. It always works I tell you.

In a future post about gardening I will share the heartbreak I went through when I shifted to a new city and the start of my gardening journey there.

Rear more gardening posts here.