Where Does The Passion Come From?
Even though I have only just begun my gardening endeavor, this winter has been hard. My garden was the one place I found myself wondering around in amazement when I was having a bad day. Where I ran to when I just needed some "me" time. The place that spoke to me without using any words. Now that it is winter that place is cold and bare. Covered in a hue of blues and grays. Riddled with dead plants and dormant grass. That's right, the winter gardening blues have hit my household. It's okay its not contagious but it is hard to keep my composure to not plant too soon and also to not go a bit insane staying indoors and out of the cold. The thought of spring helps bring me back to reality. It is way too early to be planting some plants outside no matter how badly I yearn to. Honestly, I never thought that I would wake up to a counter top so full of plants that you wouldn't believe it was actually a counter and a six acre lot of land outside with this amazing life that I have today. It has always been a dream of mine to have a garden. To grow food that I can pick right from the yard and eat immediately. To have this today over joys me! Knowing that I will soon get to see the plants burst through the soil reach to the sun and produce fruit for my family is what gets me through these winter time blues!
...One by one the small fragile plants begin to poke their first set of leaves up to begin collecting nutrients from the suns sweet rays. As the sun shines the plant grows taller and produces more leaves. The clouds cover and the sky darkens. The weather stays dull for days. The plants begin to droop and lay over. Their only hope is you. They need light and water to grow. Giving them what they need brings them back to life...
My mother always tells me she has a "brown" thumb. To me this makes no sense. You see plants need love and if you give them that they will love you back. I have tried to explain that to her but I still have yet to get through to her. I have had a plant that I left in the care of family when I left for a week. Sadly when I returned this poor plant was (what looked to be) dead. I knew this plant was a perennial so I began to care for it as if it had never "died" and guess what happened?... The plant began to sprout anew. I gave it love and it came back to me.
I'm not really sure why I have such a passion to grow. It could be because of the time my grandfather (on my mothers side) took me as a young child to Kansas City where his sister lived. There I discovered Peach trees! The back yard was an orchard but to me as a seven year old it was a never ending food forest! Everywhere I looked there were ripe ready to pick peaches and I had the go ahead to indulge! Oh how the juice ran down my face and arms as I took bite after sloppy bite. I was in heaven! Who knew peach trees could have that effect on a child? Certainly not me! Or could It be when my grandmother (on my fathers side) let me come spend my summers with her starting when I was around eleven. That is when I met her. From that day she became one of my best friends. She had the biggest heart and a garden almost as large. We would wake up early and walk to the back yard to where her garden was and harvest what she had grown. The luscious green beans and those buttery potatoes. Mmmm.... I loved to help her in the garden but at the time I hadn't realized what I was doing was actually gardening. I just knew she asked for help so I went along. Sadly My grandmother passed a few years later and I never learned what I could have from her had I just asked. I was young and when my teenage years made it around I had more interest in friends than spending my time helping to harvest vegetables. It's funny, I never knew that this would call to me so much. Had I known I would have invested in some questions and skills.
Watching plants and recording their progress may seem like a tedious chore to some but to me it isn't a chore at all. To me watching these plants live and grow is like watching life in itself. Peering into the small counter top green houses and seeing new growth every day is just so astonishing. It fills a piece of my heart when I get to see the work of our great almighty lord. He has created such astounding things with significant detail. It truly is breath taking! Let us just bask in the glory of it all for a moment...
...One by one the small fragile plants begin to poke their first set of leaves up to begin collecting nutrients from the suns sweet rays. As the sun shines the plant grows taller and produces more leaves. The clouds cover and the sky darkens. The weather stays dull for days. The plants begin to droop and lay over. Their only hope is you. They need light and water to grow. Giving them what they need brings them back to life...
My mother always tells me she has a "brown" thumb. To me this makes no sense. You see plants need love and if you give them that they will love you back. I have tried to explain that to her but I still have yet to get through to her. I have had a plant that I left in the care of family when I left for a week. Sadly when I returned this poor plant was (what looked to be) dead. I knew this plant was a perennial so I began to care for it as if it had never "died" and guess what happened?... The plant began to sprout anew. I gave it love and it came back to me.
I'm not really sure why I have such a passion to grow. It could be because of the time my grandfather (on my mothers side) took me as a young child to Kansas City where his sister lived. There I discovered Peach trees! The back yard was an orchard but to me as a seven year old it was a never ending food forest! Everywhere I looked there were ripe ready to pick peaches and I had the go ahead to indulge! Oh how the juice ran down my face and arms as I took bite after sloppy bite. I was in heaven! Who knew peach trees could have that effect on a child? Certainly not me! Or could It be when my grandmother (on my fathers side) let me come spend my summers with her starting when I was around eleven. That is when I met her. From that day she became one of my best friends. She had the biggest heart and a garden almost as large. We would wake up early and walk to the back yard to where her garden was and harvest what she had grown. The luscious green beans and those buttery potatoes. Mmmm.... I loved to help her in the garden but at the time I hadn't realized what I was doing was actually gardening. I just knew she asked for help so I went along. Sadly My grandmother passed a few years later and I never learned what I could have from her had I just asked. I was young and when my teenage years made it around I had more interest in friends than spending my time helping to harvest vegetables. It's funny, I never knew that this would call to me so much. Had I known I would have invested in some questions and skills.
Watching plants and recording their progress may seem like a tedious chore to some but to me it isn't a chore at all. To me watching these plants live and grow is like watching life in itself. Peering into the small counter top green houses and seeing new growth every day is just so astonishing. It fills a piece of my heart when I get to see the work of our great almighty lord. He has created such astounding things with significant detail. It truly is breath taking! Let us just bask in the glory of it all for a moment...
The plants have had many sunny radiant days this past week as Arkansas has heated up for a minute. We will be dipping back down into the low temperatures by the end of this week and I'm sure the clouds will be accompanying the cold. With the cloud cover and only having one small light for the innumerable amount of plants, I have had a few get a bit leggy. And when I say a bit that may be sugar coating it. I mean a LOT leggy. Some got so leggy they were laying over and their stems had gotten almost straggly. The sun and my determination to save as many as possible has helped tremendously. Though I did lose a few plants to the lack of light that will not go into my log on how the starters perform. We have only a few onions that have sprouted in the old egg carton and we are pushing the date of possible germination. One thing I did find some trouble with is mold. Some of the starters began to procure mold, whether they had not put forth shoots or had a small sprout trying to making it in this large world. The mold killed the starts and I'm sure it also caused the others not to sprout at all. We lost about eight due to the mold sadly, but there is good news.
We have so many new sprouts and an abundance of growth! Those productive peas are still doing well. In fact, they have begun to send out their tender little tendrils and are latching onto those plants near by. Luckily the time to transplant them is coming very soon. Most of the vegetables have some true leaves which are the second set of leaves you see when watching the plant grow. The first set you notice when the delicate plant begins it's journey are the seed leaves. The vibrant color of the scarlet kale and mammoth red rock cabbage is getting me excited to see them in a more mature state! Oh the joys of growing things you love. This is where I will leave you for today but I will be back to share more of my findings next week. Catch y'all later.
If you haven't already go check out my Instagram and YouTube channel
Comments
Post a Comment